By Tiffany Thompson, Staff Writer
Thursday, May 8, 2008
May 07, 2008 01:43 pm
—
North Carolinians had the opportunity Tuesday to make their voices heard in what has become a very close presidential nomination race.
More than 2.1 million voters across the state turned out to cast ballots. Approxi-mately 13,000 of those were from Stanly County.
With more than 37,000 registered voters within the county, the Stanly County Board of Elections (BOE) saw a 34.76 percent voter turnout.
“We definitely had a good turnout for a primary election, but the turnout was lower than expected,” Stanly County Elections Director Kim Wilson said.
According to Wilson, Stanly County usually experiences 35-45 percent voter turnout for sheriff’s or off year elections.
“The general expectations for the turnout was for it to be a little higher for this kind of race, but I have definitely seen lower turnouts,” Wilson said.
The state experienced a similar turnout as the 2.1 million ballots cast were 36.42 percent of the more than 5.8 million register voters.
Wilson said she believed the turnout would be a little higher due to the presidential race, as well as the Stanly County commissioners and N.C. House races.
“These were big factors. There is always a big interest in presidential races, but we has some good local races on the Republican ticket, too. I believe these were the two things that drew people to the polls,” Wilson said.
Wilson said she was also pleased with the overall flow of the day. She said the elections went smoothly as far as procedures were concerned, which she said was in part to the precinct officials.
“I want to thank the precinct officials for all the hard work they did in ensuring rules were followed and that the precinct voting went smoothly,” Wilson said.
Contact Tiffany Thompson at (704) 982-2121 ext. 24 or snaponline24@carolina.rr.com.
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