Watauga County's elections board has agreed to a plan to add a new precinct for early voting. The unanimous decision to boost the number of precincts to seven came after two days of wrangling over locations.
The new precinct will be in the Foscoe community west of Boone.
The Watauga Democrat reports that the board considered two plans. One would add two new locations but drop the precincts at fire departments in Deep Gap and Meat Camp; they had the lowest number of early-voting returns in the county.
Republican board members objected, arguing that the elimination of those precincts sends a bad message to rural voters who would have to go to Boone to cast their ballots.
The approved plan keeps the county's six existing early-voting sites and adds the Foscoe location.
Early voting begins Feb. 13.