WS Chronicle

“We have a plan!”

That’s what Board of Elections Chair Ken Raymond told attendees during a meeting last week as they unanimously ratified a plan for early voting in this year’s May 8 primary election.

The Board of Elections office on the second floor of the County Government Center will be the sole early voting site open on April 19, 20 and 23-27 with hours from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Then four satellite sites will also open from April 30-May 4 from 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m., in addition to the BOE office, which will maintain its regular hours. Saturday, May 5, will be the last day of early voting as all five sites will be open from 10 a.m.- 1 p.m. The satellite sites are Southside, Lewisville and Rural Hall libraries along with VFW Post 5352 in Kernersville.

The VFW Post was found after BOE staff searched for an alternative to the Kernersville Library and Senior Center, since the town’s annual Spring Folly festival will shutdown the streets there during the last two days of early voting. BOE Deputy Director Lamar Joyner said that the local YMCA told him that events there would conflict with early voting, He reached out to Kernersville Town Manager Curtis Swisher for other suggestions, one of which was the VFW Post. Joyner described an “exceptional” amount of parking there with enough space inside to accommodate voting needs. He said there is a $50 to $100 a day rental fee that’s within the budget the BOE allocated for early voting.  BOE member Stuart Russell, who participated remotely via speakerphone, said he felt the rental fee was very reasonable.

“I think that all three of us wanted to have somewhere in Kernersville and it looks like that’s a place that’ll work,” he said

The next Board of Elections meeting will be March 27 at 5 p.m. at its offices in the County Government Center, 201 N. Chestnut St. The brief meeting will be followed by an open house of the BOE offices and a demonstration of voting equipment.