Channel 9 gets behind the scenes look at Mecklenburg County polling preps

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Mecklenburg County elections officials are working hard to make sure voting goes as smoothly as possible.

They’re using large venues including the Spectrum Center to make sure you can vote safely and securely.

Early voting in North Carolina starts on Thursday and machine testing is well underway at the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections warehouse.

Kristin Mavromatis with the BOE told Channel 9 they’re working overtime to ensure everything goes smoothly.

“They’re making sure the touch screen works, they’re making sure everything runs,” she said.

If the machines don’t pass the test, they’ll be immediately replaced. If they do they’ll head out to early voting sites.

“There’s 195 precincts, there’s 79 ballot styles so you can imagine the amount of effort that goes in to testing each one of these machines,” she said. “Everything is very, very calculated.”

There are nearly double the amount of early voting sites this year to accommodate social distancing -- including Bank of America Stadium, the Spectrum Center and local high schools.

The BOE also recruited additional poll workers to make up for some of the older employees who opted out of this election for safety reasons.

“We’ve had a lot of community turnout to work the polls, so we’ve been able to beef up our roles and we feel that we will have enough employees out there,” Mavromatis said.

No matter how voters cast their ballot this year -- by mail, in-person early voting or on election day, Mavromatis said she is confident your vote will be safe and secure with plenty of social distancing, hand sanitizer and frequent cleaning.

In all, there are 33 early voting locations across Mecklenburg County. Click here to find the one closest to you.

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