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GREENSBORO — Earlier this week, Guilford County Democrats saw their last shot at extended early-voting hours blocked when State Board of Elections staff said no to their request.

Then, the state board decided Thursday to let any county extend hours if one member of the local elections board insisted. Now, early-voting polls will close at 5 p.m. Saturday in Guilford County.

The move gives Guilford voters four more hours to get to the polls, and unregistered voters extra time to sign up and vote in one location.

Unregistered voters can register and vote at once during early voting, but Election Day, Nov. 4, is reserved only for voters who registered by Oct. 10.

James Turner, chairman of the Guilford County Board of Elections and a Democrat, cast the one vote needed Thursday to extend early voting. Kathryn Lindley, the local board’s only Republican, voted no.

“Why change things?” she said after the state-mandated emergency meeting. “The more you change things, the more potential problems there are.

There’s no reason.”

The original state schedule required polls to close at 1 p.m. Saturday, but local boards could request changes. After Wake, Cumberland and other counties altered their schedules earlier this month, the state office denied requests this week from Guilford and Mecklenburg counties to stay open later that day.

Then, Thursday morning, the state board took up the matter.

Larry Leake, the board’s Democratic chairman, first proposed allowing counties to decide whether they wanted to stay open longer.

But Charles Winfree, a Republican member of the board from Greensboro, 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 — they will hold them open later in

Democratic counties and then will close them early in Republican counties,” Winfree said.

So, the state extended the choice to all 100 counties, allowing them to opt out only by a unanimous vote of the county elections board.

For some Democrats, there could be significant reason to extend hours.

The campaign to elect Sen. Barack Obama president has focused on early voting and on North Carolina. Polls that once showed favor to Republican nominee Sen. John McCain are now tilting toward Obama here and nationwide.

The state that voted Republican for three decades in presidential elections has become a battleground in the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, Republicans focused campaign efforts on Nov. 4.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com