Mecklenburg Co. board to expand early voting schedule in light of overturned voter ID law

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections will meet Monday to set the schedule for early voting in November.

The ongoing fight over voter identification laws could make their job more challenging this year.

The voter ID law cut a week of early voting and required voters to have a photo ID.

Now that a federal panel of judges has struck it down, the Board of Elections is racing the clock to expand early voting for the upcoming elections.

The board is set to meet Monday at 5 p.m. to vote on reinstating a week of early voting, same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting.

Election officials are still in limbo because Gov. McCrory plans to fight the appeals court decision and take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Mecklenburg County elections officials told Channel 9 they're preparing two plans and two sets of training for poll workers while they wait to see if the Supreme Court will intervene.

Mecklenburg County offered more than 2,700 hours of early voting in 2012, and officials planned to do the same this year.

If they choose to reduce the early voting hours, the election reform group Democracy North Carolina said voting could be a "train wreck" for nearly half the state's 6.6 million registered voters.

That’s because voters live in large voting precincts with at least 3,000 voters.

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Cox Media Group