Elections office gets ready for rematch
By Barbara Arntsen
Published in News on March 22, 2004 2:00 PM
Close to 5 percent of the registered voters in Goldsboro's District 6 have already chosen their new councilman.
The rest of the voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide the rematch election between Danny Roseborough and Jackie Warrick.
Gary Sims, elections director for Wayne County, said that 214 people had participated in one-stop voting for the nonpartisan election.
District 6, which spans eastern Goldsboro, has 4,156 eligible voters.
Sims said that there was a consistent stream of people until the one-stop voting stopped Saturday afternoon. Those one-stop votes will be counted on Tuesday by the Board of Elections after the polls close.
"I have no idea what the turnout will be tomorrow," Sims said. "It's completely unpredictable."
The district is represented by Councilman Delmus Bridgers, who will leave office once a new member is sworn in.
A new election was ordered for the district in December after the State Board of Elections found that the election process for District 6 had been tainted.
Additional training was implemented to avoid a repeat of problems the elections office experienced. Sims said the training focused on how to count ballots that went into the center bins of the tabulators and making sure all ballots in the bins were counted.
Ballots that have a write-in candidate or are not marked properly will be deposited in the center bin of the tabulator machine. In November, the ballots in the center bins were erroneously counted twice.
"When we look for ballots, we are now sticking our heads in the machine to make sure none are stuck to the sides," Sims said.
During the recount, the number of ballots counted didn't correspond with the number of votes cast in one precinct. Sims believes that was because static electricity caused some of the ballots to stick to the side of the bin.
The elections office also redid the tally sheets to make them easier to read and understand.
The polls open Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
The following are District 6 precincts: Saulston Fire Station, New Hope Fire Station, the Family Y, Oak Forest Road Church, New Hope Friends Church, Greenwood Middle School and Goldsboro Wesleyan Church.
Voters going to the Greenwood Middle School precinct will have to take the side entrance to the gym, instead of the front entrance. The school is usually closed on Election Day, but won't be closed on Tuesday.