Election Day: Turnout just over 25 percent; write-in tabulation is today

ELIZABETHTOWN — Voter turnout was a slim 25.25 percent in Bladen County on Election Day.

For an off-presidential election, Chris Williams said, the numbers were “about historical average looking back at historical records.”

Williams, who serves as director of the county Board of Elections, reported Wednesday morning that out of 5,592 eligible registered voters in Bladen, 1,412 ballots were cast.

“We had a great day yesterday. No problems,” he said. “It’s been one of the smoothest elections I’ve been involved in. From opening to closing, we had no problems. We have quite a few provisionals here that I’m working on now.”

No results are official for Bladen County until 11 a.m. Tuesday. It all becomes official on Nov. 23 when the state conducts its final canvass, Williams said.

He planned to count the write-in votes with a bipartisan team on today. Those will be voted per precinct with all the names that have been written in.

“We’ll make a determination on who’s got what,” he said. “If anybody has got more than the candidate, of course, the state board will be notified. … If one person gets five or more write-ins, the state board has to know about it. We have to send that to the state.”

Williams expressed surprise by the low turnout for the liquor-by-the-drink referendum in White Lake. That’s a hot button issue for many in a traditionally family friendly Southern town, but full-time residents there passed the mixed-drink measure by a vote of 132 to 68, or 66 percent.

“I was kind of expecting a bigger turnout in White Lake because of the referendum. That usually turns out more people,” he said. “But it didn’t seem to turn out a great number this time because you can see by the numbers. About 200 ballots were cast, and there’s about 900 registered voters, give or take, in White Lake.”

Roughly 40 people voted early in the White Lake election, Williams said.

The sale of mixed drinks will go into effect in the town after the state canvass. He said he will be sending some paperwork to the state ABC Board and “then it is handled from there on out. Some paperwork that it has passed here in Bladen County, and then it will be up to White Lake to contact them and do whatever they need to do.”

At this time, he said, none of the races held in the county are subject to runoffs or recounts.

“Everybody here is a clear winner,” said Williams. “You have to have a margin of less than 1 percent difference between you and the next candidate to have a runoff or recount. I don’t see anything that comes close to that.”

In East Arcadia, Pamela Graham received 44 votes in her unopposed race for East Arcadia Town Commissioner. The election had 14 write-ins.

“If there’s a person there who gets five names,” he said, “they’ll be notified after canvas here — which will be next Tuesday. They’ll have the option to accept or not accept the position. Just because you’re wrote in doesn’t mean you have to accept the position. And then it won’t become final until after the state does their canvass. After the state does its canvass, we’ll be able to print out the certificates here that we give out and then the towns will be notified.”