Macon County election officials were busy this week setting up the voting site at the Robert C. Community building as the early one-stop voting period begins on Thursday, Oct. 15.
The process is running smoothly, elections officials said, and they hope for business as usual in early voting, which closes Saturday, Oct. 31.
“The biggest concern we’ve heard so far is from potential voters and officials who are a little concerned about security,” said Gary Tallent, deputy director with Macon County Elections. “They don’t want anybody out in the parking lot talking to people.”
Macon County voters are casting ballots for a seat on the Macon County Board of Commissioners and one contested seat on the Macon County Board of Education, along with judicial, state and national contests.
The county’s other early voting site at the Highlands Civic Center is also set to welcome early voters. In the 2016 election, about 36 percent of Macon voters cast ballots during the early voting period.
The 50-foot buffer around the voting site will remain in place for early voting and on Election Day Nov. 3.
“We have the 50-foot buffer zone for electioneering,” Tallent said. “You can’t impede any voter when they’re coming in.”
In a directive to county board of elections, the NC Board of Elections provided some information on buffer zones and what activity is allowed in them.
“Anyone has the right to watch or monitor the election outside the voting place and outside the marked buffer zone,” the state board said. “Members of the public, campaigners, candidates, advocates and ‘poll watchers’ may not enter the buffer zone or voting enclosure unless they are voting.”
The elections office this week was also been training officials who will staff voting sites in 15 precincts that will be used on Election Day.
“We have about 20 new workers, mostly filling assistant positions. All of chief judges are veterans who are coming back,” Tallent said.
Election officials were originally concerned about getting enough volunteers to work the precincts, but that turned out not to be a problem.
There continues to be a surge of mail-in absentee ballots. As of Monday, Oct. 12 the elections office had received 4,319 absentee ballot requests and had received 2,173 completed ballots. In the 2016 election cycle, there were 956 absentee ballot requests for the entire 2016 election cycle.
COVID-19 precautions will be in place at all voting sites, including social distancing, and providing masks and hand sanitizer.
Early voting is from October 15th -October 31st at 2 locations:
Franklin -
Carpenter Community Building at 1288 Georgia Rd. Franklin NC 28734
Highlands -
Civic Center 600 4th st. Highlands NC 28741
The Hours for both locations are-
Mon-Fri 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Sat. the 17th & the 24th 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Last day Sat. Oct. 31st 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
If you want to wait until election day November 3rd to vote,
you would just go to your precinct between 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m..
If you are not sure of your precinct or have any other questions, call 828-349-2034.