Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Early-vote totals low

Posted on April 29, 2010April 29, 2010 by Staff

By Kirk Ross, Staff Writer

Early-vote totals finally cracked the 1,000 mark this week, as election officials ready precincts for Tuesday’s primary and school board elections.

The Orange County Board of Elections reported that as of Tuesday, 562 voters had cast their ballots at the board of elections office in Hillsborough and 570 had done so at Morehead Planetarium – the only two early-voting sites.

Election officials, expecting a low turnout, opted not to staff voting centers at Carrboro Town Hall and the Seymour Center, which they did two years ago when an historic presidential race with a hotly contested primary and an energized electorate drove up early-voting totals. Then, more than 9,000 voters cast their ballots early in the primary and more than 35,000 voted early in the general election in November.

At the top of the ticket are Republican and Democratic primaries for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Richard Burr. Burr faces Eddie Burks, Brad Jones and Larry Linney in the primary, while Cal Cunningham, Susan Harris, Ken Lewis, Elaine Marshall, Ann Worthy and Marcus Williams vie for the Democratic nomination.

Republican also have a contested primary between Ryan Hilliard and Jon Greg Bass for the State Senate District 23 seat and between David Burnett, George Hutchins, B.J. Lawson and Frank Roche for the right to face Democratic incumbent David Price in the Fourth U.S. Congressional District race this fall.

In county races, incumbent county commissioner Barry Jacobs is facing a challenge from Carrboro Alderman Joal Hall Broun and former Hillsborough mayor Joe Phelps in the Democratic primary for the at-large commissioner seat.
In the county commissioners’ District 2 race, Renee Price of Hillsborough is facing Earl McKee of Rougemont.

Also on the Democratic primary ballot is the race for Orange County sheriff between incumbent Lindy Pendergrass and former Hillsborough police Chief Clarence Birkhead.

School board
The primaries aren’t the only races on the May 4 ballot. Four seats are up for grabs on the Orange County Board of Education. Candidate in the non-partisan election are Will Atherton, Keith Cook, Donna Dean Coffey, Laura Nicholson, Brenda Stephens, Greg Williams and incumbents Anne Medenblik and Debbie Piscatelli.

Two non-partisan appeals court races are also on the ballot, with Mark Klass, Jane Gray and Ann Marie Calabria vying for one seat and Steven Walker, Rick Elmore, Leto Copeley and Al Bain competing for the other.

Polls open Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

Early voting continues from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For more information, visit co.orange.nc.us/elect

1 thought on “Early-vote totals low”

  1. Brad Jones says:
    May 2, 2010 at 8:29 pm

    > Early-vote totals finally cracked the 1,000 mark this week, as election officials ready precincts for Tuesday’s primary and school board elections.

    I wonder if the low early voter turnout is because people are finally really checking the candidates out rather than just dropping in at a convenient time and voting for the “R” or the “D” candidates. Also, how many of us have been burned by the sleazeball we have voted for and found out 2 days before election day what he’s really like (can you say John Edwards and so many others?). Then, we can’t take our vote back. Finally, I believe folks are finally aware that the Primary election is critically important. If we fail to show up and do what’s right in the Primary, we are left with the “lesser of two evils” decision in the general election.

    So, fire the incumbents in the Primary!

    Brad

Comments are closed.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme