Turnout slow in District 10 revote
By Andrew Bell
Published in News on September 12, 2006 1:49 PM
Election officials in Wayne, Lenoir and Greene counties said voter turnout was slow early today in the race for the Republican candidate for the District 10 seat in the state House.
Challenger Willie Ray Starling and incumbent Stephen LaRoque are vying for the second time this year. The May primary results, which gave Starling a narrow win, were disallowed after the state Board of Elections determined that mistakes at the polls in Lenoir County could have skewed the result.
Polls in each county opened at 6:30 a.m. and will close at 7:30 p.m.
Only voters in four Wayne County precincts are eligible to cast ballots in the race: Spring Creek, New Hope Friends Church, Indian Springs Fire Department and Dudley Fire Department.
All of Greene County and most of Lenoir is also contained in the district.
Voters who are registered Republican or who are registered unaffiliated and did not vote a Democratic ballot in May are eligible to vote.
Prior to today, 17 people had cast earl ballots in Greene County. Greene County elections officials said this morning that they were expecting turnout to be slow throughout the day, but could not say how many people had voted as of press time.
In Wayne County, 73 voters cast early one-stop ballots between Aug. 24 and Sept. 9, Wayne Board of Elections Director Gary Sims said. As of 10 a.m., only one voter had cast a ballot at the Dudley Fire Department, election officials said.
Almost 400 early voters had already cast ballots in Lenoir County by Saturday afternoon, Lenoir Board of Elections Director Dana King said. Although voter turnout in Lenoir was slow this morning, elections officials there said they expect the numbers to increase during the lunch hour and after normal working hours.