The Beaufort County Board of Elections wants new voters and those wishing to change their voter affiliation for the May primary to know they have until Friday at 5 p.m. to do it.

According to Beaufort County Board of Elections Deputy Director Anita Branch, the elections office is seeing a normal amount of pre-election traffic, consisting mostly of voters seeking to change party affiliation, rather than new voters registering.

“Most people are going unaffiliated. Most of them don’t want to be affiliated with a party anymore,” Branch said.

An unaffiliated voter is allowed to choose which primary he or she would like to vote in — Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or nonpartisan — though in the event of a second primary, each voter is required to vote within the same affiliation chosen for the first primary. Branch said second primaries are likely this year, as there are eight Republican candidates for U.S. Senate and, on the local level, there are five Democratic candidates and four Republicans running for Beaufort County sheriff.

“More than likely there will be with all the U.S. Senate candidates and other races,” Branch said. “It will be hard for any one candidate to get 41 percent of the vote.”

One-stop voting begins April 24 at the Board of Elections office on Highland Drive and will run until May 3. Because of recent changes made to voter law, the previous 17 days allowed for early voting has been whittled down to 10 days. However, the Elections office, and staff, is required to be open the same amount of hours. To compensate, the Elections office will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day and on both Saturdays falling within the early voting period.

For the first time, on Tuesday, April 29, satellite offices will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Aurora, Belhaven and Chocowinity for early voting, Branch said. Voting will take place at the normal poll sites in those towns. While Branch said it was necessary to open the satellite offices to make up matching early voting hours within limited days, it’s also a service to the community.

“It’s also convenient, especially for those working for Potash, to drop in on their way in and out of work — Chocowinity, there’s lots of people passing through there,” Branch said. “The voters down in Aurora, if they want to vote early, they don’t have to drive all the way to Washington, same for the folks in Belhaven.”

Branch said the Elections office is currently mailing out absentee ballots to those requesting them. A state form must be filled out to request the ballots. They will be accepted until April 29.

For more information about voting and the upcoming primary, call the Elections office at 252-946-2321 or stop by 1308 Highland Drive, Washington.