Wayne County gives nod to Trump, Clinton
By Steve Herring and Ethan Smith
Published in News on March 16, 2016 1:46 PM
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Dan Hux and Ann Sullivan check a ticket that lists numbers from several polling locations around Wayne County at the Wayne County Republican Headquarters Tuesday night. Also pictured is Tristan Beard, at right.
Wayne County voters followed statewide primary trends Tuesday, giving the nod to presidential contenders Republican Donald Trump with 42.50 percent of the vote and Democrat Hillary Clinton with 62.53 percent.
Tuesday's primary election was the first time North Carolinians were required to show a valid form of identification in order to cast a ballot.
"We had a few people show up without ID, and they voted with a provisional ballot with reasonable impediment," said Wayne County Board of Elections Director Dane Beavers. "Everything worked the way it was designed, and we had no complaints about the ID requirement and we didn't have anybody coming to the office to complain. Everything went real well, just as we planned."
Beavers said the board of elections is expecting a much higher volume of provisional ballots in this year's election, but that it has nothing to do with the new voter ID law.
"We are expecting a much higher volume of provisionals," Beavers said. "But it's nothing dealing with ID. There are two reasons for it, one being with people not understanding that they only get to vote with a ballot in the party they are registered in, and a lot of people insist on voting a ballot outside of their registration, and the other issue is people that weren't registered at all. They weren't registered, and never had been registered, and they insisted on voting so that created a large volume of provisionals."
Gov. Pat McCrory got the support of the state's and county's Republicans in his re-election bid to handily turnout back challengers C. Robert Brawley and Charles Kenneth Moss.
The state's and the county's Democrats also selected Attorney General Roy Cooper as their candidate for governor over Ken Spaulding.
State and county voters also supported the Connect NC $2 billion statewide bond.
Locally 14,702 (65.76 percent) voted for the bond and 7,654 (34.24) against.
According to the state Board of Elections' website, 24,233 (33.20 percent) of the county's 72,999 voters cast ballots
Vote totals are unofficial until the county canvass on Tuesday, March 22, at 11 a.m. in the Wayne County Board of Elections Office, 209 S. William St.
Trump led the GOP field in Wayne with 4,954 votes (42.50 percent) followed by Ted Cruz, 4,921 (42.22 percent); John R. Kasich, 746 (6.40 percent); Marco Rubio, 728 (6.25 percent); Ben Carson, 124 (1.06 percent); no preference, 67 (0.57 percent); Jeb Bush, 37 (0.32 percent); Mike Huckabee, 24 (0.21 percent); Rand Paul, 24 (0.21 percent); Chris Christie, 11 (0.09 percent); Rick Santorum, 10 (0.09 percent); Carly Fiorina, 6 (0.05 percent); and Jim Gilmore, 4 (0.03 percent).
Mrs. Clinton had 7,546 votes (62.53 percent) followed by Bernie Sanders with 3,564 (29.54 percent); no preference, 726 (6.02) percent); Martin J. O'Malley, 170 (1.41 percent); and Roque Rocky De La Fuente, 61 (0.51 percent).
In the gubernatorial contest McCrory had 10,068 votes (90.36 percent) in the county, followed by Brawley, 548 (4.92 percent); and Moss, 526 (4.72 percent).
Cooper had 7,897 votes (69.22 percent) in the county and Spaulding had 3,511 (30.78 percent)
House District 21 Larry M. Bell of Clinton had no problem turning back a challenge from Scotty L. Smith of Warsaw.
The district includes portions of Wayne, Duplin and Sampson County.
Districtwide, Bell had 8,609 votes (85,47 percent) and Smith, 1,463 (14,53 percent).
Bell had 5,237 votes (86.91 percent) in Wayne; 1,777 (77.46 percent) in Duplin; and 1,595 (91.04 percent) in Sampson.
Smith had 789 votes (13.09 percent) in Wayne; 517 (22,54 percent) in Duplin; and 157 in Sampson (8.96 percent).
For complete election totals go to waynevotes.com and click on "unofficial primary election results."