Early voting ends Saturday; polls open Tuesday

Early voting ends on Saturday, Nov. 5 in Polk County and as of the end of the day Wednesday, Nov. 2, more than 41 percent of registered voters in Polk County had already voted, or 6,630 total.

Early voting has been open since Oct. 21 and ends Saturday, Nov. 5 at three locations. The Polk County Board of Elections Office in Columbus, the Mill Spring Fire Department and the Green Creek Fire Department will close early voting at 1 p.m. on Nov. 5.

All seven Polk County polling places will be open on Tuesday, Nov. 8 from 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. for Election Day. See below for polling places.

Early voting has seen more Republicans cast votes than any other party so far. As of Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2,364 Republicans had voted early, 2,209 unaffiliated voters had voted early, 2,042 Democrats had voted early and 15 Libertarians had voted early, according to the Polk County Board of Elections.

There have been 3,648 female voters so far, 2,927 male voters and 55 undecided, according to the elections office.

As of Wednesday, most of the early voters were white at 6,176, with 270 black early voters, 106 undecided voters, 44 other, 19 multi-racial, eight Asian and seven American Indian, according to board of election statistics.

Most of the early voting has been done at the board of elections office with 4,316 votes cast there, 861 cast at the Green Creek Fire Department and 735 at the Mill Spring Fire Department. Other ballots have been absentee, with 212 not yet returned and 12 ballots marked “not OK.”

Polk County’s registered voters have grown to 16,021 since early voting began this year. Residents can register at the same time as early voting, but not register on Election Day.

Polk County currently has more unaffiliated voters than any other party at 5,757, with Republicans next at 5,569, Democrats at 4,622 and Libertarian at 73, according to the board of elections.

Polk County currently has 14,764 white registered voters, 751 registered black voters, 231 registered undesignated voters, 172 registered other voters, 56 registered multi-race voters, 32 registered Asian voters and 15 registered American Indian voters, according to statistics from the board of elections.

There are also more female registered voters in Polk County with 8,569 female, 7,331 male and 121 undesignated.

The Bulletin will print results of the election next Tuesday night with papers delivered on Wednesday. Results will also be online at tryondailybulletin.com and on Tryon Daily Bulletin’s Facebook page Tuesday night as well as on the board of elections’ website at polknc.org.