People who want the shortest wait to cast a ballot should consider using an absentee mail-in ballot or voting on Election Day, local elections officials said yesterday.
So many people are turning out at Forsyth County's four early-voting sites that most of them had long waits yesterday, The Forsyth County Board of Elections, however, declined to speed up the opening of even more sites, which are now scheduled to start operation next week.
Two state legislators, Reps. Larry Womble and Earline Parmon, attended yesterday's meeting of the county elections board to talk about problems they said their constituents have reported to them.
"People called me about extremely long lines and how long they had to wait," Womble said, adding that only one of the early-voting sites -- the public-library branch on Carver School Road -- is in the black community.
The county currently has early voting at the main elections office in the county government center downtown and at libraries in Clemmons and Kernersville, as well as the Carver School Road branch library.
Rob Coffman, the county elections director, said that the Carver School Road site had the longest lines on Monday, with waits that came close to three hours for some voters. Conditions improved when extra computers were brought in to process voter information.
The library in Kernersville was the most cramped site and had waits of about two hours yesterday, while the waiting period was down to an hour on Carver School Road and in Clemmons, Coffman said.
The best place to vote yesterday was at the central elections office, where voters had to wait only 15 minutes to a half-hour. The big hassle downtown, though, is finding a place to park.
Coffman said that 1,733 people voted at the elections office on Thursday, the first day of early voting, with another 1,793 on Friday and 1,790 on Monday.
Though waits were longer at the three satellite voting stations that opened Monday, fewer people voted at those sites than voted downtown: 827 at Carver School Road, 802 in Clemmons and 710 in Kernersville.
A total of 7,655 people cast ballots during the first three days of early voting.
Yesterday, Womble said he was particularly concerned that the long wait would be a negative experience for young and first-time voters.
Womble and Parmon also said that some voters had told them that elections workers were unhelpful and "short" with them.
Coffman said he didn't have any way to deal with that kind of complaint without knowing which staff member was implicated.
The three-member elections board is made up of two Democrats and one Republican. None advocated the early opening of more sites.
Eric Elliott, a Democrat who is the chairman of the local elections board, said that the county doesn't have the money and isn't ready to open up more sites ahead of Nov. 4.
"Everybody wants to hurry up and vote, but take your time," he said, noting that an additional 10 early-voting sites will be opened next week. "Once we set sites, the sites are set."
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
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