County creates

newest precinct
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Watauga County has a new voting precinct, but no voters have been moved from their current precincts.

The county board of elections approved the creation of the Transfer II precinct to help ease confusion in the Appalachian State University student-heavy Boone II precinct.

The new polling place will have a computer on site with the county registration rolls, which will help poll workers determine potential voter eligibility and reduce uncounted provisional ballots.

“We’ll have an extra transfer precinct at ASU for this year,” elections director Jane Hodges said.

“It’s for anyone who goes to a regular polling place but are not on the rolls in that precinct.”

On election days, the county operates a Transfer I precinct in the Courthouse Annex, which allows people to vote if they don’t show up on the rolls of what they believe to be their precinct.

The addition of the new transfer polling place will help eliminate some confusion and target the precinct and geographic location where the polls are often the most confusing.

“This will cut down on provisional ballots,” Hodges said. “We’ve always had a transfer precinct in the ‘Old Rock Building.’ But approximately 80 percent of our provisionals are in Boone II, which is largely an ASU precinct.”

Like the Boone II polling place, the Transfer II precinct will also be in the Plemmons Student Union, which will make it easier for ASU students to check their registration records. Hodges said students often see signs saying “Vote Here,” but they don’t realize they should vote in the precinct where they live.

Even if they aren’t registered, they can still provide information stating why they believe they are eligible to vote, and the information and voting records will be reviewed by the Board of Elections as usual.

However, any county voter who doesn’t appear on their expected precinct’s rolls can vote at either transfer poll.

Provisional votes are those cast by people who don’t appear on the printed voting rolls reviewed by precinct workers.

Often the provisional voter has either moved, registered in a different precinct, or never registered at all.

Both transfer precincts will have computers for poll workers to determine whether the voters are in the wrong precinct or had cast ballots in previous elections, but all people will still have the right to cast a provisional vote, even if their names don’t appear in the computer records.

The provisional votes are reviewed between the close of polls on Election Day and the official canvass, which is usually a week to 10 days after the voting.

Each voter’s information is reviewed by the Board of Elections to determine eligibility.

In 2006, 262 provisional ballots were cast and 170 were ultimately approved.

Typically, the Board of Elections reviews the previous rolls to see if the voter had been registered at any time and uses state Division of Motor Vehicles information to verify addresses, and the registration information will now be available to poll workers at the transfer stations.

Hodges said the voting machines and computer for the new precinct were funded by a federal grant, and the only additional cost to the county is for reimbursement to the poll workers for Election Day.

“This will be more accurate,” Hodges said.

“This will probably increase voter participation because people who are at the location and realize they have that option probably will vote.”

It will also likely cause the unofficial returns released on the night of elections to be closer to the final numbers, which might drain some of the drama that often accompanies close races while provisionals are being reviewed.

In 2006, both the sheriff’s race and the 45th District N.C. Senate race were close enough that a large swing in provisional ballots could have allowed a candidate to call for a recount.

Hodges and other elections officials encourage people to vote during the one-stop early-voting period because it allows more time to clear up any errors or records instead of waiting for the controlled chaos of Election Day.

“We recommend voting early during the one-stop process,” she said. “Remember, we have 14 election days, not just one.”

Hodges said the county’s selection of optical-scan voting machines, which scan a paper ballot, has served the county well and should last until new technology offers more choices.

Elections officials statewide are expecting a busy primary with record turnout, largely because of interest in the Democratic presidential race and the governor’s race. However, Hodges said the lack of local primaries will probably lead to lower-than-usual turnout in Watauga County. The only local primary races are for a Democratic county commission race between Doug McGuinn and Tim Futrelle, with a Republican N.C. Senate primary between Jerry Butler and Dwight Shook and Democratic 5th District Congressional primary between Diane Hamby and Roy Carter.

Hodges said it was the first time in her 22 years as an elections official that one party had failed to field any county commission candidates, as the Republicans did this time. However, she anticipates a second primary in June due to what are expected to be close statewide races.

The county commission ballot could still see more candidates, but it would be an uphill battle. Unaffiliated candidates who want to run can skip the primaries but are required to gather petitions bearing the signatures of 4 percent of the county’s 38,000 registered voters, a task made enough tougher because of the transient student population that often clogs the rolls with inactive voters. Hodges said some unaffiliated candidates had tried in the past but never made it onto the ballot in the past two decades.

The last day to record an address change or register to vote in time for the May primary is April 11.