Here's how early voting is going in first 6 days in Wake County; wait times expected to increase

Voters across the Triangle are taking advantage of early voting and election officials are hoping even more start to turnout.

As of Tuesday--six days into early voting, Wake County is reporting that more than 60,000 voters have cast their ballots in the first six days of Early Voting for the November General Election.

That's only about 7% of the 811,000 voters who an opportunity to vote any any of the 15 different sites, election officials said.

Voters who don't want to wait in long lines may find this as a good option ahead of election day on November 8. With more than half a million voters expected to turn out for the mid-terms, elections officials said they are concerned that sites will get much busier next week.

Garner resident Eloise Best was excited for chance to cast her ballot at the early voting poll at Chavis Park.

"I want to make sure my vote counted," Best said. "And then I wanted to get here early so I wouldn't be in a rush and I wanted to be able to take my time and make the best choice. It's so important because we need to put people in office that will help all of the people."

State elections director Karen Brinson Bell said some of the takeaways from the early voting numbers include a significant number of increased requests for absentee-by-mail ballots.

"The number that have been returned are up significantly over 2018," Bell said. "And we've started tracking where our daily count for one-stop early voting is going up and the overall turnout is higher than 2018 as well."

Bell said a majority of North Carolinians prefer to use the one-stop early voting period.

"So seeing a substantial participation in early voting is on par with previous recent elections, especially the general elections. And that's what we have prepared for."

Gary Sims, the director of Wake County Board of Elections said concerns about disinformation and threats nationwide doesn't seem to be keeping voters in Wake County away.

"Despite concerns about disinformation or threats against poll workers shared throughout the country, Early Voting has gone exceptionally smoothly in Wake County so far and we're just not seeing those fears come true," said Gary Sims, director of the Wake County Board of Elections.

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