After searching for an alternative site to the Morehead Planetarium that’s near campus and downtown Chapel Hill, the Orange County Board of Elections decided on Tuesday night to set up an early-voting center in the lobby of the Franklin Street Post Office.

Barry Garner, the county’s elections director, said the board reviewed several sites, including the Student Union and the Seymour Senior Center on Homestead Road before opting for the post office. The new early-voting site will be in the lobby to the right of the entrance, he said.

Students and university employees had said they did not want to see the loss of an on-campus location after university officials said work on an exhibit for the planetarium would make that site unworkable for this fall’s elections.

They opposed a proposal to move the early-voting site to Homestead Road, but finding another site that met state requirements that it be a government-funded building, along with the need for the site to be easily accessible, set off an ad hoc search for an alternative.

In addition to the post office, early-voting sites will open Oct. 18 at Carrboro Town Hall and the Orange County Public Library in Hillsboorough.

As required by law, the vote to approve the locations was unanimous.

The change applies only to the fall municipal elections and the  planetarium site will be ready for use next year. Garner said it is possible the county will open addition early-voting sites for the 2008 elections.