By MIKE BAKER
Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH (AP) — The State Board of Elections ordered Thursday that all 100 counties in North Carolina must keep early voting sites open for an extra four hours this weekend unless local officials unanimously decide it’s unnecessary.
Nancy Evans, director of the Rowan Board of Education, said she’s “100 percent sure” members of her board will vote not to adhere to the state order.
“We’re going to close at 1 p.m.” Saturday, she said.
Evans said members of the Rowan County Board of Elections won’t meet until 2 p.m. Friday, but she said she’s polled all three members by phone and all have agreed to stick to plans to close the polling sites at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Only two polling sites ó the headquarters of the Rowan County Public Library and the Board of Elections office on West Innes Street ó will be open Saturday.
In an emergency meeting, the State Board of Elections unanimously agreed to extend Saturday early voting hours to 5 p.m. The meeting came after Mecklenburg and Guilford counties sought permission to keep the sites from closing at 1 p.m. as scheduled.

The decision to alter the early voting schedule highlights the remarkable turnout and long lines seen across the surprise swing state since early voting began two weeks ago.

More than 1.7 million people ó or 30 percent of registered voters ó cast a ballot at one-stop sites through Wednesday night.

Larry Leake, the Democratic chairman of the state board, at first proposed allowing counties to decide whether they wanted to stay open. But Charles Winfree, a Republican member of the board, questioned whether county boards controlled by Democrats could be manipulated by those seeking office.

“I’m concerned that some counties will and some counties won’t and that will be manipulated by the campaigns ó they will hold them open later in Democratic counties and then will close them early in Republican counties,” Winfree said.

So the board agreed to extend the mandate to all 100 counties, allowing them to opt out only if all the Democratic and Republican members of county election boards agree.

Early voting has been a sensitive subject for the GOP this year. Registered Democrats are voting early at far higher rates, drawn in part by the party’s presidential nominee Barack Obama and his campaign’s extensive effort to turn voters out to the polls before Election Day.

In both Mecklenburg and Guilford counties, the lone Republican member of the counties’ election boards halted plans to extending voting hours earlier this week. The two Democrats on each panel sought the change.

“There are people who cannot vote on Saturday because they can’t get there by 1 p.m.,” said James Turner, a Democratic board member in Guilford County. “If we want to get a vote from any of these people, we need to extend the voting hours.”

The GOP has also been skeptical about altering early vote plans since the Cumberland County board agreed two weeks ago to add capacity to accommodate an expected crush of voters following an Obama campaign event.

State party chairwoman Linda Daves said at the time that the Republicans support more capacity, except when it comes in coordination with a partisan event.