Early voting had a slow first week. Why were the lines so long?

A total of 21,815 cast ballots early on Thursday, the highest ever early voting day in county history, elections director Michael Dickerson told the Agenda. That’s about 1,000 people higher than the previous high-water mark, set in 2012.

Friday nearly matched that total, with 21,485 votes cast.

Expect the numbers to go even higher. Last presidential election, the biggest early vote totals came in the weekend before Election Day.

Lines have stretched out the door in numerous early voting locations, with wait times as long as two or three hours in some locations at peak times.

Dickerson is predicting between 275,000 and 300,000 people to vote early this election. That compares to 280,129 who voted early in 2012.

Despite hours-long lines, early voting was actually lower in the first week than the same period in 2012. Here’s why.

The first seven days of 2016 saw about 80,000 people vote early. That’s a decline from the 90,000 who voted early in the first week of the last presidential election?

Why? Changes to early voting procedure. Only 10 early voting locations were open for the first week this year, instead of the 22 that have been open in previous presidential election years.

The changes were part of a statewide effort by Republican-controlled boards of election to limit early voting in strategic ways to advantage conservative candidates. Democrats traditionally have voted early in larger numbers. Republicans have said limiting early voting is important to curb voter fraud.

A state law passed by the Republican-controlled legislature would have cut the number of early voting days from 17 to 10 (and institute voter ID), but it was invalidated by a federal appeals court. So the number of early voting days went back to 17, but board of election could still tweak hours and locations.

Thursday, the day that set the record, was the first day that all 22 early voting sites were open.

[Agenda story: Early voting starts today. Here’s how it works.]

Early voting is easier in some ways.

Even though there were fewer locations open in the first week, voting hours were extended. Instead of voting from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., the polls were open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.

Mecklenburg County has also put more voting machines in key locations. Morrison Regional Library has always been an early voting location, but with only 8 or 9 voting machines. This year, since the library is closed for renovations, the county has put 25 voting machines in there.

Even when lines are long, things go fast.

“As long as the line is moving, people are happy,” Dickerson said.

The Steele Creek early voting location has also bumped up from 6 machines to 25 machines. Instead of the library, the voting is in an abandoned Blockbuster location in shopping center.

Here are tips to avoid long lines.

Pick a large voting site. Morrison, Ballantyne Village, Steele Creek and Beatties Ford Road all have large numbers of machines. The University City library location has only a few, and some of the longest lines.

Go out of your comfort zone. Instead of voting at the downtown library on your lunch break, try the Hal Marshall Center in Uptown or the Beatties Ford Road library location.

Go at off-peak hours. If you can. Lines get longer at lunch hour and after 5 p.m.

Go as soon as you can. The last few days of early voting are historically the most popular.

Not sure who to vote for?

Check out the Agenda guide to every race in the 2016 election.