Pitt County Board of Elections preps for early voting to start

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) – Election Day is less than a month away and early voting starts this week.

The Pitt County Board of Elections has been busy preparing for one-stop voting from training their staff to testing their machines.

“We have a test deck of ballots that are marked so we know what the results should be,” said Dave Davis, the director of elections for Pitt County. “We feed them through the machines to verify it does calculate correctly.”

This year is only for municipal elections.

“Unfortunately the highest we’ve seen for a municipal election is about 16% turnout and this one I’m not hearing a lot about,” Davis said. “By this time, people are normally calling, asking questions, so I’m thinking probably more toward a 15% turnout.”

If you plan to hit the polls this year, you’ll need to bring a photo ID.

“They will just need to come in, state their name and address, and they will need to show some form of photo ID,’ he said. “The most common one will be a driver’s license, but you can use a passport, a photo ID that county board of elections can issue to voters. There are also military, veteran and tribal enrollment cards.”

Pitt County hopes this won’t deter anyone from voting because municipal elections are important.

“Your home and where you’re at, deciding the local laws and policies, those are the people decided in the municipal elections,” Davis said. “It’s people you could see walking down the street or in the grocery store and you can actually tell them your concerns.”

In Pitt County, you can early vote at the County Office Complex starting on this Thursday. That site will be open on weekdays through Nov. 3 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturday, Nov. 4 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Other early voting sites will open on Oct. 30 with the same hours.