I-Team: Trouble voting after polling places change locations
DURHAM (WTVD) -- The I-Team got a litany of Election Day complaints. Many of the complaints were from voters furious about long lines -- a 90-minute wait in Raleigh and two hours at one Durham County polling place.
Moral Monday organizer Rev. William Barber arrived at that Durham location and blasted the state's new voting rules.
"These are the kind of problems you see when people deny things like extending the early voting days, same-day registration, and bad planning on the front end," Barber said.
The record voter turnout for a midterm election in North Carolina was the first big test for the state's controversial new voting laws.
Gov. Pat McCrory gave the state a rousing passing grade.
"I've been reading for months that the new voter laws were going to discourage people from voting," McCrory told the crowd at Tuesday's victory party for Senator-Elect Thom Tillis. "Guess what? Record turnout in North Carolina!"
However, with no more out-of-precinct voting, many voters showed up at the wrong polling place.
Election officials in Wake and Durham Counties say part of the issue is an effect of the success of early voting. They believe so many voters have grown accustomed to casting their vote at multi-precinct early voting locations. Many were surprised to find out Tuesday, they have a different Election Day polling place.
Bob Hall's government watchdog group, Democracy North Carolina, fears a significant number of minority voters simply went home in frustration. Critics like Hall say local election boards were understaffed and unprepared.
"They should have known from the early voting turnout that this was going to be bigger," Hall said.
Durham County's Director of Elections, Michael Perry, told the I-Team he was caught off guard by the high numbers.
"We did things based on typical voter turnout, and we got higher than expected voter turnout," Perry said.
The I-Team asked Perry why the county didn't anticipate higher participation after a record turnout for early voting.
"It's hard to say standing here today being asked that question, yeah we probably should have. Hindsight being as perfect as it is," Perry said.
Perry and his counterpart in Wake County, Cheri Poucher both say most of the polling place confusion was voter error.
There was only one polling place change in Durham County. Twenty-four locations were changed in Wake. The counties are bound by law to notify voters ahead of the election. Perry and Poucher suspect many voters simply threw the notifications in the trash, assuming it was junk mail.
