The day got off to an interesting start when Republican electioneers at Forest Hills Elementary and several other sites handed out sample ballots featuring GOP candidates — printed on bright blue paper.
While clearly marked as being paid for by the New Hanover County Republican Party, with candidates labeled as Republican, Democrats — including volunteers at the site — told me they felt it was an attempt to confuse or take advantage of voters. Reportedly, GOP volunteers said they had run out of white paper. By lunchtime, when I stopped by Forest Hills, the GOP electioneers had reverted to using white paper.
Elsewhere around the county, there was less drama, and also a much slower pace than the record-breaking turnout of the early voting period. Poll volunteers at at least a half-dozen sites said turnout had been slow but steady, with no visible lines anywhere around Wilmington.
Many voters demurred from discussing their politics, but everyone I spoke to said they felt this election was important.
"It's an important election. You know, it's going to be determining the future of my generation for sure," a voter named Alex told me. "Being that I'm in my 30s, I've got a lot on the line."
Like several other voters who found themselves at the wrong location, Alex said he found the shifting polling sites frustrating.
"Yeah, you're in the wrong district," he said. "Provisional voting, which is really annoying with gerrymandering — the way that they change it up every time."
A woman named Caitlin also mistakenly came to the wrong site, but was determined to get to her correct polling location. After all, she’d flown into Wilmington to vote — perks, she said, of being a flight attendant.
“I caught a flight in this morning. Just came to vote and got to catch the flight back out," she said. I asked, just to be sure, that's she'd flown all the way to Wilmington just to vote. "Yes," she said emphatically.
Caitlin said women’s rights and social issues motivated her vote.
"Women's rights — and tired of being told by men who don't have a uterus what we can and can't do with our bodies. Human rights, just more social issues. I'm tired of seeing hate being spread and people being comfortable spreading it," she told me.
Mary told me she had been coming to her same location for years. I asked her what brought her out to the polls.
“I just had to make sure that my vote got counted," she said.
Numerous other voters told me that, the politics of voting aside, the process had been easy — and even enjoyable — on Election Day, and credited the work of elections staff.
