Elections

Voting Rules Update: Find Your Polling Place

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Cary, NC – With the recent federal Circuit Court ruling undoing North Carolina’s 2013 changes to the laws surrounding voting rules, CaryCitizen will lay out the current rules over the next few months to make it easy for you to understand what to do come election day. 

VotingSign

Where To Vote

Where you vote will depend on a variety of factors. However, one of the changes to the voting laws in North Carolina as a result of the court decision is out-of-precinct voting is now allowed. So you do not have to worry about voting in the wrong place and not having your vote counted.

Still, it is better to vote in your home precinct than not. There are many tools to help you find your polling place, from the Board of Elections or your local political parties. These will give you the location you would vote at on Election Day – Tuesday, November 8, 2016.

However, if you are planning on early voting, you will not go to your polling place. You will instead go to, if you are in the Cary area, the Herbert C. Young Community Center on 101 Wilkinson Ave. Although depending on where you live in Cary, it may be easier for you to go to, for example, the Apex Community Center on 53 Hunter St. in Apex or the First Baptist Church on 209 Church St. in Morrisville.

Voting

Also, if you have not registered to vote and the 25-day registration deadline has passed, you must go to an early voting location. These will let you register on the same day you vote. On Election Day, you will not be able to register and vote. And while you no longer need photo I.D. to vote, you will need some form of identification to register and vote. Those documents can be:

  • NC driver’s license
  • Other government photo ID with name and current address
  • Utility bill, bank statement, or payroll stub with name and current address
  • Student photo ID with a school document showing the student’s address
  • Any document from any government agency with the voter’s name and current address

Another thing to keep in mind with early voting is, while Early Voting now starts on Thursday, October 20, 2016, not all Early Voting sites will be open in that time. The Herbert C. Young Community Center and the Wake County Board of Elections office in Raleigh on 337 S Salisbury St. will be open in that time but many other Early Voting sites will open on Thursday, October 27 instead.

And if you cannot leave your home or you will be out of town come election time, you can use an Absentee Ballot.

CaryCitizen does not take a stance on elections or endorse candidates but we encourage everyone who is able to go out to vote and make their voice heard.

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Story by staff reports. Photos by Keith Ivey, Mira Montes and Steven Depolo.