Do We Have A Broken Election System?

Today's New York Times has an editorial addressing how to fix a broken election system.

Some of the ideas make sense and some of the comments are especially pertinent.

On the other hand, relatively few of the problems identified by the NY Times affect elections in North Carolina.

In Pamlico County, our election system is not broken. It functions quite well. Can it be improved? Yes.

Our voter turnout exceeded the state average - 71% for Pamlico County; 68% for the state of North Carolina. We make it easy for voters to cast their ballots by conducting early voting for longer hours, having many voting locations (ten polling places for 9600 registered voters), and having well-trained election officials.

Unlike other locations in North Carolina and around the nation, we had no long lines. Most of the time, the longest wait was about five minutes. We did have printer breakdowns at two locations, and the line grew to about half an hour at Arapahoe until we installed backup equipment and procedures to keep the lines moving.

A major factor in our success has been thorough planning and preparation. That happens because we have a superb Director of Elections: Lisa Bennett. Pamlico County is fortunate to have her.