Anyone who has friends, family - please send them gentle reminders to get to the polls early. Lines are already forming and the excitement is palpable from the reports I'm reading so far. Enthusiasm gap? Not in North Carolina!
A crowd estimated at more than 150 people stood in line Thursday morning outside the Hal Marshall Annex on the north side of Charlotte’s uptown, waiting to participate in the start of North Carolina’s early voting period.
About 350 sites across the state feature early voting until Nov. 3, and the Hal Marshall Annex was the first to open in Mecklenburg County, at 8 a.m.
Read more here:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/...
And folks are tweeting their experiences from other parts of NC too:
Line around the corner here in downtown Raleigh. #myvotewillbeininlike10minutes
https://twitter.com/...
And according to local ABC news reports:
State elections director Gary Bartlett said he believes the in-person early vote will meet or exceed 2008 totals. Bitzer predicts two-thirds of the ballots could be cast before Election Day. There are now nearly 6.6 million registered voters, 300,000 more compared to November 2008.
"There are going to be long lines at early voting sites and long lines on Election Day," he said.
http://abclocal.go.com/...
As we know, heavier turnout is almost always good news for DEMS, so we are cautiously optimistic for now. You can get more information about early voting in NC here: http://vote.barackobama.com/...