Apr 23

Apr 23 Early voting enters final week in U.S. House primary race

By Junious Smith III

Entering the final week of early voting for the U.S. House of Representatives District 3 seat, voter turnout hasn’t been particularly impressive.

Early voting started April 10 and before Monday, only 9,902 votes have been cast in the 17-county area that makes up District 3. There are 474,029 registered voters in the district, so the current turnout is a paltry 2.09 percent. Early voting ends Saturday in the district; Election Day is Tuesday, April 30.

There is a slight uptick in Lenoir County from the average, though, with 1,009 of the 35,895 voters already voting — 2.81 percent. So far, 598 registered Republicans and 411 Democrats have cast their ballots in the county.

“I thought there was going to be a bigger turnout considering how many candidates we have,” Lenoir County BOE Director Dana King said. “The numbers have been a little better here, probably because there are three local candidates.”

Greene County has the second-highest turnout of the 17-county base with 3.21 percent of its voter base — 347 of 10,804 voting. Registered Democrats have cast 205 votes compared to 142 Republicans.

“We’re reaching out to voters the best way we can,” Greene County BOE Director Trey Cash said. “We’ve used Facebook, our website and other possibilities. We’ve posted in our county officers and notified the towns — we’re hoping to have more of a turnout this final week and a big turnout on Election Day.”

Of the 6,947 registered voters in Jones County, 84 have voted — a turnout of 1.21 percent — a makeup of 59 Republicans and 25 Democrats. The office in Jones County was closed Monday for early voting due to Easter.

“Low turnout was expected, but we are glad to see our numbers have exceeded similar elections,” Jones County Board of Elections Director Jennifer King said. “We hope that more voters will exercise their right to vote.

“We also want to remind Trenton voters that they will be voting at our Elections Office (this Election Day) and Maysville voters will be voting at Maysville Town Hall.”

Lenoir County has three places to vote: Teachers Memorial Gym, the La Grange Community Building and the Cooperative Extension Office. Greene County and Jones County have one place each for early voting, their own Board of Elections sites.

Lenoir County and Greene County will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. through Friday and Jones County’s polling place is available from Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.