One-stop voting ends Saturday
By Staff Reports
Published in News on October 31, 2008 1:46 PM
Saturday is the final day for one-stop voting with the polls closing at 1 p.m.
The Wayne County Board of Elections decided not to take advantage of state permission to extend hours until 5 p.m., saying they had kept the early polls open on Sundays and that extending the day was not necessary.
Tuesday is Election Day but more than 40 percent of registered voters in the county have already cast their ballots.
County Elections Director Vickie Reed said the board did not feel Thursday afternoon that they needed to extend the Saturday hours.
"Their reasoning was that for a county our size, we have gone above and beyond," she said.
By Saturday, she explained, three of the voting sites will have been open for 17 straight days and two more will have been open for seven. And, she added, Wayne is the only county in the area that has held Sunday voting hours.
"I think we've done a real good job," she said. "We've had a real steady crowd."
As of the close of voting Thursday, 28,387 people had cast their ballots -- about 41.15 percent of the county's 68,577 registered voters.
Voters are not required to provide any identification when they vote. The exception is someone who registers and votes the same day during one-stop voting, Ms. Reed said. People must have a photo identification with their correct address.
Ms. Reed said her office has received some calls concerning campaign workers passing out sample ballots at the voting sites.
She said there are no stipulations that the ballots look exactly like the actual ones. The ballots must be clearly marked as samples and contain a disclaimer that they are not being distributed by the Board of Elections.
Voters may carry the sample ballots, or any other literature into the polling area to help them vote.
"We do ask that they remove it as they leave," Ms. Reed said.
Poll workers also check the polling area to ensure no literature has been left, she said
The county has five one-stop sites: Wayne County Public Library, 1001 E. Ash St., Dudley Fire Station, 4533 U.S. 117 Alt. South at Dudley and the Woodmen of the World building, 3733 U.S. 117 North and two satellite sites at the Fremont Town Hall, 120 E. Main St., Fremont, and the Johnston Ambulance Service office at 2803 U.S. 70 West.
All five sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Election Day will be Tuesday, Nov. 4 from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. No registrations will be accepted that day.