Early voting was brisk at the site that I visited this week in Wake County, N.C.

In most years in the recent past, midterm elections have been drawn paltry crowds to the polls. But the political climate in the United States today is so inflamed (and dire, one could argue) that voters have excellent cause to get to the polls this fall.

Early voting started in North Carolina on Oct. 17 (and it ends this Friday). Until this year, I had never taken advantage of early voting. I'd always gone to the polls on election day. But this year, I didn't want anything last-minute to get in the way of my ability to cast a vote, so I went to Wake Tech Community College on Monday to take care of that business.

Wake Tech is one of 10 early voting sites in Wake County, N.C., where I live. I knew before heading to the poll that early voting was up considerably nationwide, so I kind of expected I might run into a bit of a wait. But there was no line to speak of (I think there were one or two individuals in front of me when I arrived) when I arrived. But when I looked inside, there were as many as two dozen stations where early voters could work on their ballots, and at least 20 of them were occupied.

Not long after I exited the site, I turned back to look to see if there was a line forming yet -- and there was. Which is why I decided to pull out my phone camera and take the pictures you see in this post, leading off with the line I saw after I exited the voting area.

The bottom of the lead-off photo and the first two photos below show a service I did not realize was provided -- curbside voting for handicapped citizens unable to climb the stairs to the line you see above.

The grassy areas near the voting access area at the college were littered with political signs, as shown above and below. One of the most controversial items on the ballot in North Carolina this fall were six proposed constitutional amendments promoted by a Republican super majority in the two state legislative chambers (first photo below). Three of the amendments -- one protecting the right to hunt, fish "and harvest wildlife" in North Carolina, another implementing an undefined or unexplained increase in victims' rights, and another lowering the cap of annual state income tax increases to 7 percent (it is now 10 percent) -- were viewed as red meat items to draw more Republicans to the polls to support the three amendments the legislature really was interested in -- 1) creating a voter-ID requirement for in-person voting in North Carolina in future elections (a federal appeals court struck down a recent previous effort to enact a voter ID law, saying it targeted African-American voters, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Republicans' appeal of that decision), 2) shifting certain judicial appointments from the governor (who is now a Democrat) to the legislature, and 3) reducing the size of the nine-member election board to eight -- and shifting from the governor to the legislature the duty to appoint members to that board. 

Above: On the right in the photo above, you see the stairs to the upper level of the physical education building where voting occurs at the Wake Tech campus. On the left are tables where Republican and Democrat poll workers have literature available about their candidates on the ballots. This election is the first to have judicial candidates run as members of political parties.