• Elections office seeing little interest in municipal, referendum votes.
By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer
Early voting on the countywide sales tax and in municipal races has been “sadly low,” according to elections officials.
In the nearly two weeks since early voting started in Columbus County, 212 ballots have been cast, including absentees and 11 “instant votes” cast by people who registered at the same time.
While municipal elections generally have low turnout, Carla Strickland of the Columbus County Board of Elections said this year’s results so far have been worse than usual.
“It’s been very, very low,’ Strickland said.
Whiteville, Lake Waccamaw, Bolton, Chadbourn, Brunswick, Fair Bluff, Cerro Gordo, Sandyfield, and Tabor City will hold municipal elections Tuesday (see candidate surveys in today’s newspaper). Also, all registered voters in the county can cast a vote on the proposed one-quarter cent local option sales tax.
So far, Strickland said, few voters seem to care. Strickland said she is required by law to print enough ballots to provide one for every registered voter who could cast a ballot. For Tuesday’s election, 36,000 ballots were printed, but Strickland said she expects most of those to be wasted. By law, unused ballots must be kept for 13 to 23 months, depending on the race.
Municipal races sometimes have turnouts in the single digit percentages, while national and general elections can sometimes pull 30 percent of registered voters to the polls.
“People always complain about tax dollars being wasted,” Strickland said. “When they don’t vote, the taxpayers are wasting their own money.”
Early voting ends Saturday at 1 p.m. Conventional polling places throughout the county open at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7:30 p.m.
Absentees will be counted at the Elections Office starting at 2 p.m.
Unofficial results will be announced at the board of Elections office on Legion Drive as soon as they are compiled. Canvass day will be Nov. 13 at 11 a.m.
Strickland said the poor turnout has been frustrating for election workers.
“I wish I could find some way to encourage people to take advantage of the early option,” she said. “I hope they’ll turn out for Tuesday, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
For more information about early voting, call the Columbus County Board of Elections at 640-6609.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
First let me just say congradulation to Judge Gore. He has worked hard for this position and he is very good at what he does and knows the law.