GREENVILLE, N.C. — At the Alice F. Keene Park Community Center, just outside of Greenville, the line stretched around the parking lot, with wait times up to two hours for the first day of early voting. At the same time, supporters of Donald Trump gathered at the airport to see the president.
As of 5:30 p.m., almost 230,000 people had voted early in North Carolina Thursday. That’s on top of the more-than 530,000 people who have already cast absentee ballots.
Local candidates and county party volunteers worked the socially-distanced line outside the community center, trying to sway last-minute undecided voters. Most had their minds made up on who to vote for in the presidential race, but candidates in local races worked for every last vote.
Pitt County, home of East Carolina University, voted blue in 2016, with almost 52% of the county’s voters casting ballots for Hillary Clinton. Trump won North Carolina with about 50% of the vote in the last presidential election.
Asked about Trump’s visit to Greenville, Donna Whitley, a volunteer with the Pitt County Democrats, said, “That’s fine. It motivates us to get people out and vote.”
“I am thrilled to see this long line here,” Whitley, a Greenville native, said.
It was a mild fall day with plenty of sun in eastern North Carolina, by all accounts a good day to wait in line to vote or for an outdoor rally for the president.
Across town, Ricardo Foster, of Greenville, South Carolina, had set up a stand to sell Trump 2020 merchandise near the airport. He sold flags, shirts, beer koozies and just about anything else you could want with the words Trump 2020 on them.
Foster said he travels to Trump rallies to sell his wares to supporters. He said business was OK before the rally, but he spent much of the morning giving directions to the fairgrounds where Trump fans were parking to be bussed to the event at the airport.
Robert Massengill, of Four Oaks, walked across a busy four-lane road to check out Foster’s flags. “I’ve never voted a day in my life, but I’m voting this time,” he said.
He bought a flag printed with an image of Trump riding a velociraptor of Jurassic Park fame.
Massengill, who said he was a Marine Corps veteran, said he was excited to vote for Trump. “I’m not doing a mail-in, I’m going to be right there,” he said.
North Carolina is firmly in the swing state category this year, with both presidential campaigns pouring money and resources into the state. The campaigns have been sending the candidates and their surrogates to campaign in North Carolina, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest polls show Joe Biden polling an average 4% ahead of Trump in North Carolina.
This was Trump’s first visit to North Carolina since he was diagnosed with the coronavirus two weeks ago, with his illness linked to a superspreader event at the White House for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barret.
Trump had been making near-weekly visits to North Carolina to rally supporters, but polls show support for Biden has grown slightly in recent weeks.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who himself is locked in a tight race, was also at the White House event and later tested positive for COVID-19.
Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for vice president, had planned to visit Asheville and Charlotte Thursday, but those events were cancelled after staff members tested positive for the virus.
The ongoing pandemic has been ever-present throughout the campaign, reshaping basically every side of the election this year.
Trump and Biden had been scheduled to have a debate Thursday night, but after the president’s diagnosis, organizers tried to switch it to a virtual format, but Trump refused. Instead, the candidates will hold competing town hall events on network television.
Masks have become a political symbol for many. Face masks were few and far between at the president’s rally at the Greenville airport, according to press pool reporters who covered the event. But Democrats, who held small gatherings around Greenville to get out the vote, all wore masks and bumped elbows.
Speaking outdoors in Greenville Thursday morning, longtime eastern North Carolina Congressman G.K. Butterfield, said, “If you hear Donald Trump you would think that we have defeated the pandemic.”
Butterfield held a press conference near ECU hours before Trump’s plane was scheduled to land. “For him to come to Greenville with another superspreader event isn’t just irresponsible, it’s reprehensible,” he said.
The congressman said he expects at least 60% of North Carolina’s voters to cast ballots either by absentee or during early voting.