Election is Tuesday; turnout remains high
By COBY LaRUE
Staff
As the election draws closer, voter interest and early voting turnout were already at record levels as of Tuesday afternoon at the Alleghany Board of Elections Office.
The office is located at 348 S. Main St. in the lower floor of the County Administration building and is the only place in the county where early voting may be accomplished.
While One Stop voting is typically pitched as a convenience or as a way for voters to save time, it hasn't necessarily been that way this year in Alleghany or statewide. "We have had a wait, but nowhere near as long as they've had in other counties," said Director of Elections Kate Cosner. "The longest wait we've had has been 25 minutes."
Even though there have been lines during One Stop, based on the level of voter interest, Cosner said she would still anticipate a very busy Election Day. "I wouldn't say there are going to be long lines or waits, but I expect it to be busy."
Three touch-screen voting machines have been dedicated to the task of early voting and extra staff has been brought in to help at the office. However, lines have often formed as voters are checked off on the official voting logs or while they wait on a machine to become available.
As of Tuesday evening, 2,017 had cast One Stop votes, of whom 1,113 were Democrats, 565 were Republicans, 336 were unaffiliated and three (of the county's four registered) Libertarians.
In the 2004 presidential election, some 1,100 people had cast votes by this time in the process. The total One Stop turnout in 2004 was 2,054.
While the deadline to register to vote in the upcoming Nov. 4 presidential election was Oct. 10, those who vote One Stop may register and vote the same day. One Stop voting will end on Nov. 1 at 1 p.m.
Cosner said there is no voting at the board of elections after Nov. 1. "Voters will need to go to their individual precincts," she said.
At the beginning of the One Stop period, the county had 7,186 registered voters. Since One Stop opened, an additional 40 people have registered and voted same day. Including those new registrations, the county now has 3,602 registered Democrats, 2,269 registered Republicans, 1,351 registered unaffiliated and four registered Libertarian.
Of those voters, 76 are black, 60 are Hispanic, 7,033 are white, nine are American Indian, one Asian and six are listed as multi-racial.
The county has 3,814 registered female voters and 3,384 registered male voters.
In addition to One Stop absentee voting, another option is absentee voting by mail. The deadline to request those ballots was Tuesday.
The deadline to return absentee ballots is Nov. 3.
As a side note, Cosner said those casting straight party ballots on the touch-screen machines must also manually choose their selection for president and for non-partisan races.
The general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Those wishing to come to the Board of Elections Office on election night will be seated in the county commissioners meeting room, where results will be projected on the wall as they become available. Results also will be available on the Web at http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/ by following the election results links.
For more information, call the board of elections at 372-4557.
Polling Places
On Election Day, polls open at 6:30 a.m. and will close at 7:30 p.m. Beginning this year, voters in the Prathers Creek Precinct will be voting at the Mount Zion United Methodist Church fellowship hall. The previous polling place, the New Hope Community Center, was inspected by the Board of Elections recently.
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