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High Voter Turnout For Fayetteville Civil Rights Ordinance Early Voting

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — Early voting on the Uniform Civil Rights Protection Ordinance 5781 in Fayetteville ended Friday (Sept. 4) and the Washington County ...

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- Early voting on the Uniform Civil Rights Protection Ordinance 5781 in Fayetteville ended Friday (Sept. 4) and the Washington County Election Commission said it has been a busy four days.

Election Coordinator Jennifer Price said the lines were as long as the lines the commission usually sees during a general election, but poll workers were ready after going through the special election on Ordinance 119 in December, 2014.

"We anticipated that turnout would be very similar to the way it was during the December election," Price said. "So we planned accordingly for early vote as well as election day."

Price said poll workers have seen an average of about 900 people a day during the four-day early voting period. Fayetteville residents Bob Bonds and Brooke Shimer were two of them.

"It was a pretty long line, longer than I thought there would be, so the turn out may be pretty big," Bonds said.

Shimer said she voted early because she has a lot of classes on Tuesdays.

"The line was longer than expected, so that is good," she said. "I guess they had a good turn out, but it went really smoothly."

Price said on election day, which is Sept. 8, the election commission is doing things a little differently. Instead of having precincts, the commission set up 17 voting centers around the city to make it more convenient for voters. That means voters will be able to vote at any voting center instead of having to vote at their precinct.

"That gives voters the convenience of going to a polling place maybe while they are running errands, dropping kids off from school or coming from work and they pass a polling place that may be closer to them than trying to get to the one they normally vote at," Price said.

Price said when a voter casts their ballot at one voting center, the others will get that information, so the voter cannot cast another ballot somewhere else.

On election day, Fayetteville residents can vote from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. For a list of voting centers, click here.

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