Agenda - 05-05-2016 - 4-c - March 15, 2016 Primary Election Report

Browse Search

3 • Absentee Voting— As directed by the Elections Board, we established 6 one-stop early voting sites with a total of 426 cumulative hours. The votes cast at each site are as follows: (total 19,989) 3,866 - Hillsborough BOE 816 - Efland Ruritan Bldg. 5,055 - Carrboro Town Hall 913 -New Hope Community Center 5,477 - Chapel of the Cross 3,862 - Seymour Senior Center There were 930 Absentee By-Mail ballots counted for a total of 20,919 ballots cast prior to Election Day. We processed 1,309 new voter registrations that registered and voted during the one-stop voting period and 1,232 change of addresses. We trained and staffed a total of 45 people to work the six voting sites. • Election Day— Election Day voting was steady at all precincts with 26,551 ballots cast. All precincts were open at 6:30 a.m. as required. We had a total of 273 precinct officials working in 44 precincts. We did experience substantial lines at a couple of our polling places starting around 7:00 pm until the polls closed. All voters in line at 7:30 pm were able to cast a ballot. My reports indicate the longest line at 7:30 pm was at the Cheeks Precinct, Gravely Middle School, Efland with approximately 175 people who voted after 7:30 pm. Voting continued at this site for approximately an hour after closing to process voters in line at 7:30 pm. I am happy to report that we did not have a single voting tabulator machine issue in the county. The voting tabulator equipment was very well received by the precinct officials and the voters. Precinct officials reported the ease of use was very much appreciated. The only issues we had with voting equipment are the aging ADA compliance machines. We had a few with screen and print issues. Due to the support of the BOCC, we are ready to replace the ADA machines as soon as approved by the State Board of Elections. Precinct officials reported few problems processing voters. The Primary Election was the first election to employ electronic poll-books countywide. We conducted over 30 pre-election training sessions to ensure precinct officials were well trained. We did note that there were some precincts that need additional training and/or duty reassignments that we will address prior to the November General Election. Some of the Chief Judges did not have the "best" computer persons checking in voters which caused some voter delay. The Elections Board discussed this and staff is prepared to take care of making the precinct assignments where needed. There were no noteworthy issues with voters presenting an acceptable photo ID. The Board conducted a post-election meeting with the Chief Judges on April 4 to gather feedback from the officials on what worked well, what didn't and what we can improve on. The consensus from the meeting was that there were voters who did not agree with the photo ID requirements but most of the voters were prepared to show a photo ID without any issues. We employed greeters to inform voters of the photo ID requirement and to answer any questions prior to check in. I