Voting in America: Waking up on your 81st birthday to queue before the doors open
Dolores Glover turned 81 today.
She started her birthday at the voting station in Mecklenburg, arriving long before sunrise to get her place in the queue.
It’s 19 days till the US presidential election and yet such was her wish to vote she got to the local library just after 6.00am, to wait two hours until the doors opened.
Her hope is that a belated birthday present will be a Biden-Harris victory.
It’s a possibility but North Carolina is a tough place for the Democrats - President Obama only won it once and with a low vote share.
In 2016 it went to Donald Trump.
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This time it’s a swing state which is too close to call.
Such is its importance that more money has been spent on television advertising here than anywhere else in the US.
The president, struggling in states he won last time in the Midwest, needs it badly if he’s to avoid being a one term commander in chief.
He was visiting on Thursday, eager to get the Republican message out.
The would-be Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris was also expected to visit, but Covid infections on her team confined her to barracks.
There was a time the state was more traditionally Republican.
However changing demographics and an influx of more unaffiliated voters has shifted the political landscape.
North Carolina can’t be defined as a red or blue state anymore - it’s more purple and that is a tricky mix for those seeking to secure victory here.