RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s top elections administrator has ordered counties to open a minimum number of early in-person voting sites this fall to buttress ballot access during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those sites also have to be open on otherwise optional voting weekends.
State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell cited her emergency powers in announcing changes Friday.
The order also tells election workers that while they’ll have to wear face coverings at voting centers and Election Day precincts in November, voters won’t be required to do so.
A key Senate Republican and liberal-leaning election advocacy groups criticized the order for different reasons.
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