County voters heading to polls
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on May 5, 2008 1:46 PM
Early voting has been successful in Wayne County, with a high turnout expected at the polls for Tuesday's primary, Board of Elections spokeswoman Vickie Reed said this morning.
One-stop voting, which ended Saturday at 1 p.m., produced about 10 percent of registered voters, Ms. Reed said.
"We were expecting a little more but we were pleased," she said.
New registrations were also up, with about 350 new registrations recording during one-stop voting.
All in all, she noted, "Early voting went very smoothly. We had a dream team out there. There were no problems.
"The lines were long and they had to wait long but (the average time was) about a minute and a half for each voter once they got inside."
Election officials are expecting a high turnout for Tuesday's primary, Ms. Reed said.
"We're hoping about 50 percent or more get out and vote tomorrow," she said.
Polls on Tuesday open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
Although the Democratic presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has drawn the most attention, Wayne voters will have a chance to help choose the nominees, and in some cases, the winners, in races from the governor's mansion to the county register of deeds as well as decide the fate of an additional quarter-cent sales tax put on the ballot by the county.
Locally, five people are seeking the at-large seat on the Wayne County Board of Commissioners: Democrats Chris Gurley, Darrell Horne and Sandra McCullen and Republicans Jeffrey Jennings and Hal Keck. Two Republicans are vying for the District 1 seat on the board of commissioners: incumbent Andy Anderson and James Beckwith.
Constance Coram is challenging incumbent Lois Mooring for the county register of deeds job.
In the race for Wayne County Superior Court Judge, Arnold Jones Jr. is challenging incumbent Jerry Braswell. And three men are seeking a district court seat: Will Bland, Charles Gaylor and Christopher Rogerson.
A number of other district court judge races are uncontested.
Wayne voters also will help determine the outcome of many state races. In the race for state Senate District 5, six Democrats are battling for the right to run against Repub-lican Louis Pate in the fall. They are Donald Davis, Ed Wilson, Tony Moore, Charles Johnson, Charles Stone and Kathy Taft.
In the race for state Senate District 12, Democrats Patricia Oliver and Kay Carroll face one another and so do Republicans David Rouzer nd Nena Reeves.
3rd District Congressman Walter Jones, a Republican, faces a challenge from Joe McLaughlin. The winner will face either Marshall Adame or Craig Webber in November.
On the ballot for governor are Democrats Richard Moore, Bev Perdue and Dennis Nielsen. Republicans seeking the nomination are Robert Orr, Elbie Powers, Pat McCrory, Bill Graham and Fred Smith.
Other races include those for lieutenant governor, several seats on the Council of State, including state treasurer, commissioner of labor, state auditor, commissioner of insurance, superintendent of public instruction, the state Supreme Court and the state Court of Appeals.