ORANGE COUNTY – Orange County Board of Elections director, Tracy Reams says voter turnout this year is way down compared to the last municipal and school board elections.
“The last municipal election, the first day of early voting we had 283 that voted early, and the first day for this one we only had 109,” Reams says. “The second day we had 248, and the second day (this year) we only had 97.”
Early voting totals remained steady on Tuesday with 108 voters casting their ballots. The Seymour Senior Center once again assisted 60 voters while Carrboro Town Hall again saw the second most with 27.
In 2011, just more than 4,000 voted in the early election period.
Reams says she’s hopeful that people will follow similar patterns from two years ago as people often procrastinate or use the weekend day to have their vote counted.
“On November 5—that last Saturday that we were open—we had the highest number of voters of all the days that we were open,” Reams says. “We had 580, and the next that’s closest to that, we had 529 on that Friday. We did not break above 400 on any given day except those last two days.”
She says the low numbers mean no lines at the polls. Four locations are open Monday through Friday until November 1 and Saturday November 2.
For a list of the polling locations and their hours, click here.
