Friday is the deadline to register to vote in the upcoming March 15 primaries in North Carolina.

There is a remedy for people who want to vote in the primaries but fail to register by Friday. It’s called same-day registration. People who are not registered to vote in their respective counties may register during the one-stop, early voting period, which begins March 3 and ends March 12. As the result of a preliminary injunction granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, same-day registration is allowed. This option is the object of ongoing litigation in federal court.

“To use same-day registration, a person must complete a voter registration application and show an election official proof of residential address in the county. … Within two business days of the person’s registration, the county board of elections will verify the person’s driver license or social security number, update the voter registration database, search for possible duplicate registrations, and proceed to verify the registrant’s address by mail. The registrant’s vote will be counted unless the county board of elections determines that the registrant is not qualified to vote,” reads the North Carolina State Board of Elections’ website.

In recent days, there has been a noticeable increase in voter-related traffic at the Beaufort County Board of Elections, according to deputy director Anita Bullock Branch.

“Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah,” Branch replied when asked about an uptick in voter registration. “Party changes, mostly party changes, but there’s been an increase in registrations.”

In January, the three-member board unanimously decided to open the board’s offices from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. the last Saturday (March 12) of the early voting period. The 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule for that office includes March 3, March 4 and March 7 through March 11. Three satellite offices (Aurora, Belhaven and Chocowinity) would be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 10 and March 11 (Thursday and Friday) and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 12 (Saturday) of the early voting period.