Time to vote
By Matt Shaw
Published in News on July 19, 2004 2:07 PM
More than 1,000 Wayne County residents chose to vote early in Tuesday's primary elections.
When one-stop early voting concluded Saturday, the Wayne County Board of Elections had collected 1,027 ballots.
The Goldsboro library, with 737 voters, was the most popular polling place, followed by the Belfast fire department with 156 and the Dudley fire station with 134.
Elections Director Gary Sims was satisfied with the process, even if the numbers at the two fire stations weren't as high as he hoped.
"The Board of Elections tries to make it as convenient as possible for people, but we cannot make anyone vote," Sims said today.
It cost the county around $5,300 per site to hold one-stop voting. State law requires it to have at least one site. The Board of Elections chose to open three, as it did during the 2002 elections. It hasn't yet decided the one-stop locations for the Nov. 2 general elections.
The county has 58,570 people eligible to vote in this election, so everyone else can head to the polling places, beginning at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. Voting will end at 7:30 p.m.
All 30 polling places will be used Tuesday for the Democratic and Republican primaries. Unaffiliated voters can choose to vote in either party's primary.
Voters in the 1st Congressional District, which includes 15 county precincts, will also receive ballots to choose a replacement for U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance, who resigned his office last month.
Anyone with questions may call the Wayne County Board of Elections at 731-1411 or go to www.waynegov.com/boe.