Options help voters

Published 6:48 pm Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Beaufort County voters who may find it difficult, if not impossible, to get the polls while they are open Election Day have the option of voting early.

Voters may mark ballots at the Board of Elections office at 1308 Highland Drive, Suite 104, any day during the early voting period.

That office will be open for early voting from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 23, Oct. 24, Oct. 25 and the weekdays of Oct. 27-31. Early voting may also take place there from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 1.

Three satellite early voting sites — Aurora, Belhaven and Chocowinity — will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 28 and Oct. 30 and from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 1.

Members of the Beaufort County Board of Elections, which met Tuesday and accepted absentee ballots that have been received for the Nov. 4 election, want voters from any precinct in the county to know they can mark ballots at any one of the three satellite locations.

A voter does not have to live in the Aurora, Belhaven or Chocowinity precincts to vote early at those respective satellite locations. That means that a voter who lives in the Beaver Dam or another precinct and knows he or she will not be able to make it to that polling place Election Day may vote early at one of the satellite locations Oct. 28, Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. That voter also may vote at the Board of Elections office during the afore-mentioned early voting schedule for that site, Kellie Harris Hopkins, Beaufort County’s elections director, noted.

Each satellite location will have copies of the 12 ballots that will be used this election to make sure the voter received the proper ballot, according to Hopkins.

Board member Tom Payne said those options provide voting opportunities for people whose work schedules or travel requirements may interfere with their ability to vote Election Day.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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