GUILFORD COUNTY - Boards of Elections are posting some big numbers for their first full day of early voter turnout, but North Carolina's new voting laws make it hard to compare this year to the last presidential primary.
If the first day of early voting is any indication it may be difficult to measure the impact of the new voting laws. While voters have fewer days to cast their ballot ahead of the March 15 primary, they have more sites to choose from on day one.
In Guilford County that meant all 11-polling places opened the first day.
"In 2012, the first day that we had all the sites available, which would be the equivalent of what we did yesterday, that would have been that final Monday going into the election," said Guilford County Board of Elections Director Charlie Collicutt.
So while about 2,400 people voted Thursday in Guilford County they had almost a dozen places to do it.
Voters said they value that kind of access.
"There wasn't a line,” said Nicole Harrison. “This was nice and smooth."
Jim Spencer, another early voter, said, “It’s more convenient, it's easy, and it's a good way to ensure we are going to vote."
Still it's early in the voting process and not easy to draw comparisons.
Rockingham County's Board of Election Director points out there's actually a Democratic Primary in the race for president as well as a Republican Primary.
"We didn't know what was going to happen when we went into this election," said Collicutt.
Early voting runs through March 12th.
North Carolina's primary is March 15th.