Early voting ended with a flourish but still fell short of expectations as 3,154 people cast early ballots for the upcoming May 6 primary.
Polls open are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday around the county for those who didn’t take advantage of the early voting option. Election organizers are reminding voters going to the polls that some voting precincts will be different due to schools now longer being used as polling places. All voters should have received notification of their new polling places. Those with questions can call the election office at 473-5834.
The primaries failed to draw the crowd that was expected, especially given the fact two races including public defender and circuit court clerk, will be decided by the Democratic Primary. When put up against the same primaries four years ago when there wasn’t a contested circuit clerk of public defender race, this year’s early voting fell short. A total of 3,158 voted in the primaries in 2010.
Of the three thousand-plus that voted early, only 283 voted early in the Republican Primary. The contested race there saw John Shields and Danny Orr on the ballot for county executive. Blaine Wilcher is running a write-in campaign. Should he win the nomination, he would then be on the ballot. He did not put his name on the ballot because he wanted to retain his county commission seat, for which he has no competition.
With the election just two days away, candidates had to turn in a pre-primary report, accounting for their campaign finances.
Leading the way in spending in the second reporting period was county executive candidate Bob Warren who spent $5,788 over the past month since their last report. That led Herschel Wells with $1,835 and Kenneth Rogers with $1,225. Both Wells and Rogers led the other candidates in spending during the first reporting period.
Leading all local candidates in spending this election; however, is circuit court clerk hopeful Ramsey Womack who reported spending $5,013 this past period. Combined with the first period he has spent $11,499 on his campaign to unseat incumbent Bernie Morris. She spent just $238 this past reporting period, meaning she is yet to break the $1,000 mark in spending.
Sheriff’s candidate Bobby Edwards continued outspending incumbent Sheriff Jackie Matheny, spending $1,412 to the incumbent’s $718 this last month.
While their office isn’t up for election until August, general sessions judge challenger Jean Brock reported spending $4,773 while the incumbent Bill Locke reported spending nothing this past month.
Register of Deeds hopeful Charlie King got out of the gate early by spending $4,773 this past month, compared to nothing by the incumbent Terry Smith.
