Voters, candidates in final day of rough election season
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 7, 2016 9:57 AM
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When the polls open at 6:30 a.m. for Tuesday's general election nearly one half of Wayne County's eligible voters already will have cast ballots through one-stop voting.
That compares to statewide where more than 45 percent of the nearly 6.9 million registered voters who cast their ballots with Democrats and Republican turning out in roughly equal proportions, the state's elections board said Sunday.
In Wayne County 16,572 Democrats voted compared to 13,032 Republicans.
"It is what I was expecting," Wayne County Elections Director Dane Beavers said of the local turnout. "It is very predicable here in Wayne County because so far the ones I have worked here since 2012, every election almost exactly reproduces itself as far as numbers."
All county polling places will remain open until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
When one-stop ended at 1 p.m. Saturday, 36,310 (47.9 percent) of the county's 75,768 eligible voters had cast ballots.
The local turnout is similar to the 2012 general election when 35,710 (51 percent) of the county's eligible 69,785 voters cast ballots during one stop.
"For a time there we thought it might be a bigger turnout," Beavers said. "I think we are seeing a little bit of apathy from people who don't like either (presidential) candidate which might cause us to be just a hair lower.
"We don't quite have the same level of African American turnout as we did in 2012. The African American vote is a little bit off, not a whole lot, but just a little bit."
In Wayne County, black voters cast 13,696 ballots during one-stop in 2012 compared to 11,848 this year while white voters totaled 20,533 in 2012 compared to 22,164 this year.
In 2012, the turnout in the county for the general election was 68.9 percent compared to 68.42 percent statewide.
Statewide almost 3.1 million voters have made their choices at early-voting locations or by mail-in absentee ballots, the State Board of Elections said Sunday, a double-digit increase over the early voting period during the last presidential election in 2012.
But percentages for Democratic and black voters remained lower compared to four years ago. Blacks comprised 22 percent of the early vote compared to 27 percent during the last presidential election, when Republican Mitt Romney won the state.
About 7 out of 10 voters submitting absentee ballots statewide have come from white voters during early voting this year, an increase of about 17 percent over their 2012 totals. Meanwhile early ballots from black voters decreased by 9 percent from four years ago.
Ballots cast by voters who declared themselves unaffiliated with either of the two major political parties surged by 40 percent.
In Wayne County unaffiliated voters accounted for 6,618 ballots compared to 4,992 in 2012.
No problems were reported locally during one-stop voting, which was "surprising quiet," Beavers said.
"You have some people concerned about the voter ID issue," he said. "They wanted to voice their concerns, but other than that everybody has been nice and friendly, shown up to vote."
A photo ID is not required to vote.
"You just come and state your name and address," Beavers said. "I think for the first time ever we have had no lines except for the first day where we had about a 20-minute wait the first couple hours.
"Since then there have bee n no lines in the entire county since we implemented ballot on demand and increased the check-in stations."
A "fairly good number" of people took advantage of same-day registration to register and vote, he said.
The number totaled about 100 a day, he said.
Saturday at 1 p.m. was the last opportunity to register and vote the same day. People cannot register and vote on Tuesday.
"You will still be able to cast a provisional ballot," Beavers said. "We will not turn away voters at a polling place.
"The law says you have to be a registered voter for your ballot to count on election day so you may cast a provisional ballot, but then the board (of elections) will determine whether or not it is counted based on the law."
The major remaining question is how many more people will cast ballots on Tuesday and whether it will be more or less than the 4.5 million who cast ballots in 2012, Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer wrote in an email.
With close campaigns for North Carolina's next governor and U.S. senator also on the line, the state was ground zero for the presidential fortunes of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump's vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, was scheduled to hold a rally Sunday at the airport in Hickory, setting up a frantic slate of campaign rallies on Monday.
Trump is scheduled to appear Monday afternoon at an arena on the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, wedged between stops in other battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Hampshire.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine campaigns in Charlotte and Wilmington on Monday. Hillary Clinton closes out her campaign rallies in Raleigh, where she speaks at a midnight rally ending in the first minutes of Election Day on the campus of North Carolina State University.
The AP contributed to this article.