Polls were originally scheduled to close at 1. p.m. on Saturday, but on Thursday, the State Board of Elections gave counties the go-ahead to stay open until 5 p.m.

The only way polls could close at 1 p.m. is if county boards voted unanimously that it wasn't necessary to stay open.

In Wake County, voters were glad to see the time extended.

"We wanted to beat the Election Day lines," said Maureen LeBoeuf, an early voter.

The wait for some was longer than two-hours, and it might be worse on Election Day.

"I'll wait longer than that if I had to," said John Woods, an early voter.

Board of Elections officials are expecting a large turnout on Tuesday even though more than two million voters took advantage of early voting in North Carolina.

"It's my duty to vote and if I had to wait two hours I'd wait two hours," said Kim Newell, an early voter.

"I spent 28 years in the Army. You know this is really what the United States is all about, it's freedom, and democracy and I don't think it should matter how long you have to wait, I mean there are people who die for the right to vote," said LeBoeuf.

And when the clock struck 5 p.m., early voting ended.Voters who still want to cast their ballots, now have to wait until Tuesday. Those who got in just in time, were thankful.

"I just found out about it, my dad just called and said that I can come over here - so I went ahead and did that," said Jordan Mitchell, an early voter.

Others weren't as lucky, Mark Hoffman ran out of time, but he says he'll cast his ballot on Tuesday.

"Exams, school had a lot of stuff going on this week, I work part time, I had to work this morning too, helping a friend move today, decided to come out right at the end apparently," said Hoffmann.

Polls open at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday.