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Long lines cap last day of early voting

Alan Rogers

Voters wait in line to cast their ballots at Highland Recreation Center in Hickory during the final hour of one-stop early voting on Saturday.

DETAILS

One-stop voters who have voted so far:

• Republicans: 19,144

• Democrats: 15,128

• Unaffiliated: 8,450

• Libertarians: 20

Absentee ballots received so far: 3,661

Absentee ballots mailed out: 4,836

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: November 1, 2008

HICKORY - A line of voters stretched from the doors into the parking lot of the Highland Recreation Center as Catawba County's citizens took advantage of the last day of one-stop voting before Election Day.

Just two of Catawba County's four one-stop voting sites were open Saturday to allow the final early votes to be cast.

"It's been like this all day long," said Highland Recreation Center Site Supervisor Flossie Saddler as she looked at the line of people waiting to vote.

Catawba County Election Supervisor Larry Brewer stood beside Saddler as he surveyed the crowd.
"The line at the Newton library is about twice this long," he said.

Although the Highland location was scheduled to close at 3 p.m., Brewer decided to keep it open for about 30 minutes past closing time to accommodate voters.

He said he and his poll workers had a long night ahead of them that would involve downloading all the votes cast from the voting machines and completing the mountain of paperwork that accompanies every election.

"We're hoping to be done by midnight," he said, adding that he and his staff had worked until 10 p.m. Friday to close down the early voting locations at Mountain View and Sherrills Ford.

Although one-stop voting drew to a close Saturday, absentee ballots will continue to trickle in through the mail. The deadline for absentee ballots is 5 p.m. Monday.

The question on many people's minds right now is, "Which candidates have received the most Catawba County votes so far?"

"Right now we just don't know," Brewer said. He explained that the Elections Board will meet at 2 p.m. on Election Day to tally Catawba County's early votes and no one will know the totals before then.