MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Dozens of people worked together Tuesday to pass off and secure each ballot. Making sure each vote matters.
“It’s so fulfilling. It’s amazing. You’re holding the future in your hands,” Nataline Suaris, Mecklenburg County election worker, said.
This is Suaris’ third year volunteering for the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. She’s one of about three dozen volunteers.
Sauris says each in the past three years she’s seen voter engagement grow on election day and night.
“A lot of my friends and coworkers I’ve gotten them to vote in the process, so it’s allowed people to get more involved in that sense.”
Queen City News captured the moment boxes with ballots from each of 195 precincts in the county showed up at the elections office.
“You’re thinking that’s going to be an issue and we noticed in the primary it wasn’t a major issue. Most of it was – you know – we’ve had some people come in who were upset saying, ‘Oh, we shouldn’t have to do that’,” Director Michael Dickerson of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections said.
This election seems to present fewer challenges than past cycles for Dickerson. For his crews, he says one element missing was consistent skepticism from those crying ‘election fraud.’
“The openness that we do things. You may not agree with the outcome, but everybody we want everybody to be comfortable with the results,” Dickerson says. “This was a new year for some folks. I love our judges and we’re excited that they’re out there seeing the process. We had those new observer at those early voting sites who said, ‘oh, this looks good.’”
The canvas of the ballot will not happen for another 10 days. This allows time for absentee ballots to make it in, and for them to sort through provisional ballots.
