Pamlico County Election Summary

Pamlico County voters cast 249 early votes today.

Earlier in the day, the Pamlico County Board of Elections met to review absentee ballots returned to date, accepting 99 as valid. Taken together with the previous total of 2,908 votes cast, as of October 30, Pamlico County has cast 3,258 votes, or 34.45% of the county's registered voters. Four more days of early voting remain before next Tuesday's election.

In another action, the County Board voted two to one in favor of adding four hours to next Saturday's early voting period. State law requires that the vote be unanimous, therefore it did not pass. Therefore early voting will end Saturday, November 3 at 1:00 pm.

In other election news, state officials  decry extremely aggressive and hostile electioneering at some locations:

RALEIGH -- North Carolina voters are facing some obstacles as they cast their ballots from voter intimidation to election misinformation. Election officials said enough is enough.

“Some of it is mischievous,” said Gary Bartlett, NC State Board of Elections executive director. “Some of it is just mean-spiritedness.”

Bartlett said he is seeing more problems during this year's early voting cycle than he has seen in his previous 20 years in elections.

“There have been fights that have broken out and there have been arrests made,” said Bartlett.

In fact, Bartlett sent a letter to all county board of election directors this week, warning them of problems he has seen throughout the state.

“There is really nothing we can do as staff,” says Wake County Board of Elections Deputy Director Gary Sims, “because if it is within that 50 foot we can stop it. But outside that 50 foot all we can do is make sure that we have an obstructed way for the voters to get to the polls.”

Voting site locations aren't the only concerns. Letters were sent out to targeted voters throughout the state from two outside groups.

The letter asks: What if your neighbors knew whether or not you voted?
In some cases, News 14 Carolina viewers said it showed they did not vote in the last election, when they actually had, and they said this tactic alarmed them.
For its part, one of the groups sending the letters, Americans for Limited Government, sent News 14 Carolina a statement saying: "...Using publicly available information, we have been able to identify voters who have a tendency to vote but for whatever reason have failed to do so at the most critical moments. We unapologetically urge these voters to exercise their right to vote, a goal which we are confident everyone applauds."

But election officials said voters from around the state are upset that these letters are circulating.

“We do know that it has upset a lot of people and there has not been anything positive said about that,” said Bartlett.

Early voting continues through Saturday. Election day is Nov. 6.