Overview:
• Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Voters are picking mayors, city council members and town board members in nine municipalities
• Turnout may be higher than usual due to competitive races
Keep up with the results. Read CityView’s Election Day live coverage here.
Tuesday is Election Day, and heated races in Fayetteville and Hope Mills may drive voters to the polls in what normally is a low turnout affair as voters in Cumberland County’s nine municipalities pick their next leaders.
The Board of Elections reported that 7,268 people participated in early voting for this election, vs. 4,674 people in the 2023 municipal election. That’s a 55.5% increase.
Here’s what you need to know if you are casting your vote today:
Where are elections being held?
In Cumberland County, elections are underway in Fayetteville, Hope Mills, Spring Lake, Linden, Wade, Stedman, Godwin, Falcon and Eastover.
Who is allowed to vote?
Registered voters in the city and the towns may vote. People who live outside the city and town limits are not allowed to participate. If you are not registered to vote, you may not participate.
When can you vote?
Election hours are 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4. Voters who are in line when the polls close at 7:30 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
Who is on the ballot?
Candidates for Fayetteville mayor, the Fayetteville City Council, and mayor and town boards of the county’s eight other municipalities are on the ballots.
To see who you may vote for, click here to look up your voter registration information in the North Carolina voter registration database. Scroll down to see a link to download a sample ballot listing your candidates.
Where do you vote?
Voters are to cast ballots in their election precincts. The address of your precinct is in your entry in the state’s voter registration database.
If a voter visits the wrong precinct, the voter will be given the option of going to the correct precinct or of casting a provisional ballot. The county Board of Elections will review provisional ballots later and count votes for those who were eligible to participate in the contests on the ballot they filled out.
Is photo identification required to vote?
Voters are required to present a government-approved photo ID to vote.
Approved photo IDs include driver licenses, passports, military IDs, veteran IDs, some school IDs, some Native American Indian tribal IDs, and others. See the state Board of Elections photo ID webpage for more information.
People without ID are still allowed to vote. They will be asked to fill out a form explaining why they don’t have ID, and they will cast a provisional ballot. Casing a provisional ballot means the county Board of Elections will decide later whether to count their votes.
People without photo ID will be asked to provide a reason, called a “reasonable impediment,” for lacking ID.
Reasonable impediments include: lost or stolen ID, the voter applied for an ID but hasn’t received it yet from the government, and lack of transportation or other factors kept the voter from getting the ID.
Other legal reasons to be without photo ID: The voters have a religious objection to being photographed, or they were in a natural disaster within 100 days of Election Day.
The state Board of Elections has further information.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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