As County grows, so does job of running elections
Leigh Anne Price is director of Johnston County elections.
SMITHFIELD — Growth has transformed the Johnston County Board of Elections in ways voters might not readily notice.
Since Leigh Anne Price began working in Johnston elections, the number of registered voters has more than tripled — a reflection of one of North Carolina’s fastest-growing counties.
That growth has touched nearly every aspect of the election process, from finding polling places and recruiting workers to printing ballots and planning future precincts.
"It's challenging," said Price, director of the Johnston County Board of Elections. "When I started, we had 50,000 registered voters, and now we have 170,000."
Perhaps the most visible challenge is the need to split voter precincts so they don’t become too large.
Flowers Plantation, one of the fastest-growing communities in Johnston County, now has more than 15,000 registered voters. Price said the Board of Elections plans to split it into three separate precincts next year.
But that means more than simply drawing new boundary lines. "You have to find three different sets of precinct officials," Price explained. "Then you have to find three different voting places."
The office has already begun identifying possible polling locations in the area, including Thanksgiving Elementary School.
Every new precinct also means additional voting equipment, supplies and trained workers.
Johnston County currently operates 36 precincts and maintains 55 voting machines to serve election day voting, early voting and backup needs. County elections, meanwhile, typically require eight or nine workers per precinct.
Recruiting enough people has become one of the office's biggest ongoing tasks, Price said, adding that the public might not realize how much effort goes into finding precinct officials. In addition to recommendations from the County’s political parties, the elections office recruits at libraries, reaches out to schools for student workers and accepts applications through its website.
"We do everything we can to recruit them," Price said.
Population growth also directly affects election costs.
"The more people we have, the more ballots we have to prepare for," Price said.
The numbers involved in Johnston elections are substantial.
For the most recent primary election, the office ordered about 47,500 early voting and election day ballots, along with 850 absentee ballots. During the last presidential election, absentee ballots totaled about 6,100, early voting drew 128,000 voters, and another 31,000 voted on election day.
Price credits early voting with helping the county keep pace with its expanding population. "It truly is the way to go," she said.
Without it, Price said, precincts would struggle to handle the volume of voters. "We would have lines forever if we didn't have early voting or if people didn't take advantage of it,” she said.
Technology has also helped the office adapt.
Johnston County now uses ballot-on-demand printing during early voting, allowing precincts to print ballots as voters check in rather than printing every ballot style in advance. (Because Johnston is made up of three N.C. House districts, the ballot a voter receives depends on where he or she lives in the County.)
Price said the system reduces waste, saves storage space and cuts costs by eliminating unused ballots.
Still, growth has brought logistical challenges that technology cannot solve.
Finding polling places and early voting sites can be hard, Price said, especially as longtime locations become unavailable. The office often relies on schools, churches and community buildings, but those aren’t always available.
Behind the scenes, the work begins months before voters cast a ballot.
Candidate filing, campaign finance reporting, ballot proofing, poll worker training, equipment testing and ballot ordering all occur long before election day. The office also prepares voting equipment for every precinct, creates training manuals and coordinates delivery of supplies across the county.
Despite the increasing workload, Price said the office's goal has remained the same throughout her career.
"In the administration of the election, there can be no politics at all," she said. "We just want to make sure they are true, accurate, and safeguarded."
A day at the office
SMITHFIELD — Most voters only see the Johnston County Board of Elections on election day. But long before ballots are cast, a small staff is working year-round to prepare for the next election.
On a typical day, employees process voter registration applications, upload new registrations received from the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles, and remove deceased voters from the rolls.
For Elections Director Leigh Anne Price and her staff, there is really no off-season.
Election preparation begins months in advance. Candidate filing starts in December, campaign finance reports must be tracked and audited, absentee ballot requests begin arriving, and ballots go through a four-step proofing process before they’re printed. At the same time, the office recruits and trains precinct officials who will staff polling places across Johnston County.
"We're trying to work smarter, not harder," Price said.
This year, in addition to traditional classroom instruction, the office is introducing online training so precinct officials can review procedures right up until election day. "Because we do classroom training a month before election day, it's easy to forget things by the time the election rolls around," Price said.
Much of the elections office work happens behind the scenes.
Staff members calculate how many ballots each precinct needs, verify shipments from the county's ballot printer, test every voting machine, organize election supplies, and assemble manuals for chief judges, judges and other precinct workers. Election equipment goes into secure rolling metal cages so it can be delivered to polling places the day before the election.
One task the public rarely thinks about is recruiting election workers.
"We need precinct officials, and we do everything we can to recruit them," Price said.
The office partners with local libraries to hold recruitment events where residents can register to vote, obtain a photo ID and apply to become a paid precinct official. The office also reaches out to local schools for student workers.
After each election, the work continues.
Price invites all chief judges to a roundtable discussion to review what went well and what could be improved.
"I always start the meeting by addressing what our office did wrong or could have handled better," she said.
The discussions have led to practical improvements, including better training materials and a color-coded manual showing each precinct's curbside voting area, handicap parking, sign placement and electioneering boundaries.
Despite the occasionally long hours and year-round workload, Price said the people she works with keep her coming back. “My most rewarding thing is the relationships I have with my precinct officials," she said. "Some have been with me for 20, 25, or 30 years. They keep coming back because we're like one big family.”
Page last updated on: August 14, 2026