Final opportunity: March 2 marks last day of early voting in 2024 Primary Election

The final day to vote early in the North Carolina Primary Election is Saturday, March 2, and polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Photo credit: WLOS staff.

By Taylor Thompson, Friday, March 1, 2024

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Saturday, March 2, is the last day to vote early in the 2024 Primary Election.

As of Friday, March 1, there were 7.5 million registered voters in North Carolina — and 502,740 early and absentee ballots had been cast.

On Saturday, early voting will run at all locations from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Corinne Duncan, director of Buncombe County Election Services, said that Friday, being the second-to-last day before voters would have to wait until Super Tuesday, March 5, to vote, is typically when election services officials see the greatest turnout for early voting. News 13 found this to be true, as a crew spoke with many residents who were out casting their votes on Friday.

“We need to make a difference,” said Buncombe County resident Lillian Davis.

Another voter, Rosemary Crow, expressed the same sentiment.

“We need to all make a decision and, hopefully, we’ll get the right people,” she said.

Duncan added that Saturday can get very busy, and those who plan to vote that day should be prepared for lines and longer waiting times.

“We have a shorter amount of time for voting on Saturday, but we usually have a lot of people turn out, so the voters per hour is higher on Saturday,” she said.

As of Friday afternoon, Duncan said they had seen 20,215 early voters so far.

“We’re thinking that we’ll see at least 24,000,” she added.

In some of the neighboring mountain counties, as of Thursday, Henderson County had seen 8,354 early voters, and in Haywood County, there had been 3,432.

Although the deadline to request an absentee ballot has passed, if anyone is voting absentee and already have a ballot, they have until 7:30 p.m. on election night (March 5) to get that in.

Those ballots can be turned in at any early voting location. On Election Day, absentee voters can turn their ballots in to their local election services office.

For those not planning to vote early, Duncan said to be ready for Election Day. Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. March 5. Voters can only go to their assigned polling location to vote. Duncan said to make sure to bring a photo ID and to be in line by 7:30 p.m.

For everything to know about voting in Buncombe County, click here.

To read more about the state numbers and look at the current early voting numbers, click here.

Read the WLOS news story here.