Kudos to the Beaufort County Board of Elections — Tom Payne (chairman), Jim Vosburgh and Archie Harding (secretary) — for making it easier for Beaufort County voters to mark their ballots for the upcoming Nov. 6 general election.
The board elected to open three sites for early, one-stop voting — the Board of Elections office in Washington, the Aurora Community Center and the John A. Wilkinson Center in Belhaven. The decision to provide multiple sites for early voting has been made before, but not always for each election or primary.
As for early voting at the Board of Elections office, the board also decided to extend the hours. That office will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on days when early voting takes place.
In Aurora and Belhaven, early voting is set from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 23 and Oct. 30 and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 3.
Kellie Harris Hopkins, Beaufort County’s elections director, said the board wanted to make it easier for voters to participate in the upcoming election. The board has a record of taking action to make the voting process as easy and as convenient for voters as possible. When it comes to voting, Hopkins believes anything that helps bring more voters to the polls on Election Day, mark ballots during times set aside for early voting or get them involved in the election process deserves support.
Earlier this year, the board launched its new website and acquired a presence on Facebook and Twitter to better serve and educate voters. The board credits the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners for providing the money needed to launch the new website.
The new website allows voters to determine in which school districts, congressional districts, state House and state Senate districts they reside. It also allows voters access to campaign-finance records.
That approach to serving and educating voters, well, it gets our vote.