All early voting sites in Guilford County will close today, Thursday, Feb. 20, at 4 p.m. due to the expected inclement weather.
All the early voting sites will also be closed the morning of Friday, Feb. 21 and will open for voting at noon.
So if your to do list for today is – Buy bread and milk and vote –you might want to change the order and go vote first.
The Guilford County Board of Elections held an emergency meeting on Thursday at 11 a.m. at the Old Guilford County Court House to make a decision on how to handle the severe weather that is forecast. The motion to close the early voting sites early on Thursday and open late on Friday passed unanimously which means the three Democrats and two Republicans all reached the same conclusion about the weather.
Chairman of the Board of Elections Jim Kimel said, “County staff provided us with up to date weather forecasts to help us ensure that the voting sites are safe. Decisions to modify the voting schedules are taken very seriously as they have a large impact on logistics and accessibility, but our number one priority is to ensure safety of our poll workers and our citizens voting.”
Guilford County Elections Director, Charlie Collicutt said, “Whether it is a power outage, high turnouts, road construction issues, or in today’s case inclement weather, we take every precaution to anticipate and prepare for the unexpected to ensure that voters have a great voting experience.”
Collicutt said that his office works closely with Guilford County Emergency Management to ensure that voting sites run smoothly.
Early voting started on Feb. 13 and will run through Feb. 29 for the primary election being held on Tuesday, March 3.
