Early voting is one of the conveniences of modern life and you might want to take advantage of it because the Guilford County Board of Elections is expecting to see a whole lot of voter turnout.

Guilford County Elections Director Charlie Collicutt said this week that – due to the large number of federal, state, and local races on the ballot in the 2022 general election – he expects voter turnout to be “robust.”

The election comes at a time when the country is highly divided and voters are being mobilized in all parties.  Hot-button issues like inflation and crime are also expected to get voters to the polls who normally might not show up.

Collicutt said that early voting is a way to let voters pick a location, day and time from Oct. 20 to Nov. 5 that’s convenient for them.

Anyone who’s voted in a low-turnout Guilford County primary and walked right up to a voting machine in recent years may not worry much about long lines.  While early voting helps reduce the length of the lines on Election Day, this year a large turnout will no doubt mean crowds at some early voting sites and on Election Day in some places.

One popular and central place for early voting that often sees long lines is the Carolyn Q. Coleman Conference Room in the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro.  It was formerly known as the Blue Room.  For a short time, years ago, the county’s Clerk to the Board’s Department was moved to an office with a large glass door on the first floor of the old court house – and a former clerk to the board and former assistant clerk to the board said at that time that the long, constant slowly moving line of people looking into the office made them feel like they were “zoo animals.”

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