2024 Election: Cooper appoints interim labor commissioner until Farley is sworn-in

One polling location in Wilson County will remain open an extra 30 minutes Tuesday.

The NC Board of Elections agreed to extend the opening time of the Gardners School polling place because of printing problems Tuesday morning.

The polling place opened as scheduled at 6:30 a.m. but when the first voter arrived at 6:40 a.m. workers discovered they could not print authorization forms. That problem continued until 8:07 a.m. So no voters were able to vote at this precinct until then.

Workers said they turned away 10 voters from 6:40 - 8:07 a.m. However, four of those did come back to vote later. It is unclear how many other voters learned about the problem at the polling place and changed their plans.

The NC Board of Elections held an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon to debate extending polling hours at that precinct because of the printing problem. The Board has the authority to vote on extending poll hours on a case-by-case basis.

Board members discussed the issue with some pointing out the problem appeared to affect so few voters but all agreeing they wanted to avoid the possibility of disenfranchising any voters. So they voted unanimously to extend the precinct's hours by 30 minutes.

Because of this, no precinct in Wilson County will be able to report results until 8 p.m. That is a new policy of the NC Board of Elections. Previously, all counties in the state would have to delay their reporting until all polls were closed. The Board changed that policy in 2022 to only affect the county where a precinct remained open.

First-time and long-time voters are lining up Tuesday morning for Election Day.

While 57% of registered voters have already cast their ballots, millions more will still flock to the polls across North Carolina, including in Wake, Cumberland and Durham counties.

ABC11 caught up with Joseph Pike headed to the polling place at Cliffdale Recreation Center in Cumberland County.

"I'm feeling excited. Yes, I'm looking forward to it," he said. "I feel that if I don't, it could go one way or the other. I figure every vote is important."

ABC11 is tracking Election Day's turnout. There are more than 227,000 registered voters in Cumberland County.

We also caught up with another voter, Cherise Hawkins of Durham County. Why so early? She said she did not want to miss the opportunity to vote.

"I think it's very important for us to get out and vote and just have the right people in the right chairs and then right seats," Hawkins said.

Polling places will be open until 7:30 p.m.

"I think it's very important for us to get out and vote," Cherise Hawkins, a voter in Durham County, said.

The executive director of the State Board of Elections and their general counsel hosted a news conference on Tuesday.

Karen Brinson Bell said there were no major incidents to report from any polling locations across the state.

In the coming days, all 100 county boards of elections will count the presidential contest by hand on ballots from the chosen Election Day precincts, in-person early voting sites, or absentee-by-mail ballots.

Then, they will compare the totals with the results of the voting machine counts.

Polls close at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5. Any voter in line at that time will be allowed to vote, so voting may continue hours after 7:30 at certain polling locations.

A new North Carolina law makes it illegal to count in-person early votes before polls close Tuesday. However, by-mail absentee ballots received before Election Day can be tabulated.

That means the first election results reported by counties to the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBOE) will likely be by-mail absentee ballots. NCSBOE estimates there will be a 30-60 minute delay in getting the in-person early voting results submitted to the state.

At the end of the night, NCSBOE estimates 98 percent of all ballots cast will be reported publicly. The remaining ballots will then be tabulated over the following 10-day canvass period. That's the timeframe when the following type of ballots will be counted and added to the total:

• Absentee ballots received on Election Day.
• Provisional ballots cast early or on Election Day.
• Certain absentee ballots dropped off by voters in the 25 counties affected by Hurricane Helene.
• Military and overseas-citizen absentee ballots that arrive by mail at county board of elections offices from Election Day through 5 p.m. November 14.

Remember, all election results on or in the immediate days after Election Day are unofficial. In the days after the election, bipartisan election officials in all 100 counties will audit all of the results during the canvass period.

County boards will certify election results on November 15. The state board will certify the final results on November 26.

More details about how North Carolina counts votes and reports results.