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f the trend continues, almost a third of Pamlico County’s registered voters will have cast their ballots before Election Day.

Sign outside the County Courthouse in Bayboro, which, like Grantsboro Town Hall, is the site of early voting on weekdays 8am-6pm and Saturdays 8am-1pm..

As of Saturday – midway through the 2-week early voting period — 25 percent of all registered voters had already voted. 2422 ballots have been cast. There are 9625 registered voters.

Saturday was the 9th day of early voting. There are 6 more days to go before the early voting ends on November 1.

The percentages are even higher among the voters from the Oriental and Bayboro precincts. 30% of them have already voted.

Countywide, and as of Saturday, 1321 registered Dems have voted one-stop, 564 Republicans and 362 Unaffiliated. Lisa Bennett, Director of Pamlico County’s Board of Elections says fifty-seven of those voters had not been registered before the early ‘one-stop’ voting. They registered and voted on the same day as the new NC law allows.

As for absentee ballots, Republican-registered voters were outpacing Democrats. 94 Republicans, 56 Democrats and 26 Unaffiliated have so far voted absentee.

On Friday, Lisa Bennett said that if the trend continued, 3000 people — or 31.25% of Pamlico’s registered voters, could have voted before the polls open on Election Day.

Lisa Bennett and some of the many voters who are casting ballots early this year in the “one-stop” voting.

She says she hopes that happens. “It makes it easier on Election Day, instead of having everyone in the world coming out.” She’s estimating on Election Day another 40% of the registered voters will turn out.

Friday was particularly busy with 355 voters casting ballots at the two one-stop voting locations — at Grantsboro Town Hall and the County Courthouse. There was even, she says, a line with a 7 minute wait around noon when many people came to the courthouse location during their lunch break.

Poll worker Jerry Harrison saw to it that “I Voted” stickers were handed out to Ryan and Jessica Kersey of Grantsboro and their daughter Jada who was there at the booth as they voted.

Generally though, Pamlico voters wanting to cast ballots early have been able to do so pretty quickly. The polling places at the courthouse in Bayboro and at Grantsboro Town Hall haven’t had the long lines seen in more populated counties.

Bennett says a Craven County man tried to vote in Pamlico the other day, telling poll workers that the lines in his home precinct were too long. “I guess the word has spread that we have no lines here.” Bennett says. “We sent him back to New Bern.”

Despite what the sticker says, 3-month old Jada Kersey will only be able to legally vote for the first time in the 2028 Presidential election. She came along to the polls with her parents Friday. Her father, Ryan says he voted early because “it’s the most important election” of his life.

A break-down, by precinct of the percentages of registered voters who cast ballots in the one-stop voting as of Saturday, October 25:

Oriental – 30%
Bayboro – 30%
Arapahoe – 28%
Stonewall – 22%
Grantsboro – 21%
Reelsboro – 21%
Mesic – 21%
Alliance – 18%
Vandemere – 11%
Hobucken – 4%

Posted Monday October 27, 2008 by Melinda Penkava