(Getty images photo illustration)
In Durham, by 1 p.m., a little more than 400 people had voted at the South Regional Library near the Research Triangle Park. Across the county, 15,893 Durham County voters had voted in person as of 2 p.m.
Hilda Cortes was just leaving the voting booth when she agreed to talk with NC Newsline about the election.
“I’m hoping for change,” said Cortes, who did not disclose who she voted for in the presidential election. “I think everything needs to change — the economy, jobs, everything.”
Montae Watson also voted at South Regional Library on Tuesday. If the election is a fair one, Watson said, the nation will get a good look into the minds and hearts of its people.
“I’m hoping that the person that sits in that seat is the person God chose to sit in that seat for that period of time,” Watson said.
He said leadership is important on all levels.
“I think that the way we’re currently structuring things [elections] isn’t setting us up to receive the best leaders but rather setting us up to receive the most well-known or popular leaders.”
Natalie Beyer, a member of the Durham Board of Education, was outside the library handing out fliers to support the candidacy of Mo Green, the Democratic nominee for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Green, a former Guilford County Public Schools superintendent, is facing right-wing Republican Michelle Morrow in a much-watched race to lead the state’s public schools.
“I think it’s very telling that the sitting Republican [state] superintendent [Catherine Truitt] declined to endorse her,” Beyer said. “Our students deserve better than that kind of extremism.”
Green and other critics have said Morrow’s past social media posts about killing Democrats and urging former President Donald Trump to use the military to remain in power in 2021 should disqualify her from holding office.
At the top of the Democratic ticket, Beyer said she hopes Vice President Kamala Harris can unite the country and lead it forward in a way that “encourages solid policy solutions to address the issues of our nation.”
“This is the start of a new chapter, one that ends the divisiveness and returns the nation to believing in the best of each other and believing in scientists and policy experts,” Beyer said.