700 cast ballots in early voting
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 23, 2012 1:46 PM
More than 700 people cast their ballots for the May 8 primary last week during the first two days of one-stop voting -- mostly at the voting site at the Wayne County Public Library on East Ash Street.
A total of 734 people voted between Thursday and Friday. There also were 16 new registrations and 30 registrations updated.
Board of Elections Director Vickie Reed, who checked the sites before coming to her office Monday morning, said the two-day numbers were about what had been expected.
"It is usually light the first day or two and steadily increases," she said. "Dudley is a little slow, but so was Southern Academy in 2010. Now that people know we have a place, people will turn out."
Totals for the sites were:
* Wayne County Public Library, 1001 E. Ash St., 253 on Thursday, and 233 on Friday
* First Congregational Church, 215 Sleepy Creek Road, Dudley, 30 on both days
* Woodmen of the World Lodge 3733, U.S. 117 North, Goldsboro, 103 on Thursday and 85 on Friday
All three sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 23-27 and 30 and May 1-4 and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 5.
So far voting has gone smoothly and everyone "is behaving," Ms. Reed said.
"I think the poll workers are doing an exceptional job considering the number of ballots," she said.
There has been a "lot of interest" in all of the new district maps, and each polling site has a person to help voters read the maps, she said.
May 7 at 5 p.m. is the deadline for people to return absentee ballots to the Wayne County Board of Elections. The county mailed out 852 absentee ballots.
Sample ballots are posted on the Board of Elections website under 2012 election information. Go to waynegov.com, click on Dept. (A-H) and select Board of Elections.