Wayne voter turnout was 66 percent
By Staff and Wire
Published in News on November 4, 2004 2:02 PM
From staff and AP reports
Wayne County residents voted in greater numbers this year than North Carolinians as a group, but turnout was less than record-setting.
Including early and absentee voters, the county had 41,617 people, or 66 percent of the 63,001 eligible voters, vote this year, Elections Director Gary Sims said Wednesday.
That number is unofficial because it includes the provisional voters, a small percentage of whom are likely to be found to have been ineligible to vote. That will be sorted out at next Tuesday's canvass.
The State Board of Elections reported Wednesday that 3,416,784 North Carolinians voted for president. That is equal to 61.9 percent of the 5,519,992 people registered for this election.
State Elections Director Gary Bartlett said he expects turnout to reach 63 percent when provisional votes are taken into account. That would bring the total number of votes cast to just under 3.5 million.
Before Tuesday's election, Bartlett had predicted a turnout of between 65 and 68 percent.
North Carolina's highest turnout in recent history came in 1984, at 68.5 percent.
More than 983,000 people -- or nearly 18 percent of all registered voters -- cast early ballots in person during the early voting period Oct. 14-30. In Wayne County, the early turnout was 34 percent.