N.C. primary turnout

could break records
By Jason Reagan
reagan@wataugademocrat.com

After one-stop early voting ended on Saturday, the Watauga County Board of Elections kept busy preparing for the expected record-breaking storm of Tuesday’s upcoming primary.

As of Saturday, 3,765 voters cast their ballot in the Democratic and Republican primaries — a primary that will help nail down the contentious battle for the Democratic presidential nomination between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.

Analysts say Clinton must win both North Carolina and Indiana to have any hope of maintaining a viable chance against Obama’s growing delegate lead despite her previous “big-state” victories.

Elections director Jane Hodges said the voting has unsurprisingly favored the Democratic contest by about a 5-to-1 ratio.

Locally, the primary race between county commissioner candidates Doug McGuinn and Tim Futrelle will decide the race since no Republican is running.

Aside from the presidential frenzy, there is little contention in state legislative races concerning Watauga County.

Boone dentist Jerry Butler, a Republican, will square off with Taylorsville resident Dwight Shook to determine who will face 45th District state Sen. Steve Goss, a Democrat. Democratic incumbent state Rep. Cullie Tarleton is unopposed as is his Republican challenger Dan Soucek.

The Democratic ballot includes 11 contested races while the Republican side features only six.

Another reason for the spike in Democratic turnout may be the contentious race for the governor’s mansion as Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore slug it out with negative television ads.

Some analysts are expecting the primary to break records — as many as 1.5 million North Carolinians may vote, shattering the record set in 1984 of 961,000.

About 337,000 voters took advantage of early voting across the state.

For more primary information, including video profiles of the candidates, log on to WataugaDemocrat.com.

Election returns will be reported on Tuesday evening on the Web as they become available.