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Polk turns out 31 percent of registered voters

POLK COUNTY—Polk County voters turned out at 31.18 percent for Tuesday’s primary election, according to unofficial results from the Polk County Board of Elections Office. 

There were a total of 4,832 ballots cast out of a total of 15,495 total Polk County registered voters. 

More voters chose the democrat ballot during this primary over the republican ballot. In North Carolina, people must vote their party in the primary if they are registered with a party. Unaffiliated voters could choose either the democrat, republican or libertarian ballot. Polk County has more unaffiliated voters, with republicans second and democrats third. 

Polk County voters cast 2,548 democratic ballots compared to 2,265 republican ballots, 11 libertarian ballots, 5 green party ballots and 3 constitution party ballots for Tuesday’s primary. There were also 7 blank ballots. 

The democratic ballots made up 52.73 of all ballots cast, compared to republican ballots at 46.88 percent. 

Polk County had a strong turnout during early voting, which ended on Saturday prior to Super Tuesday. There were 1,987 ballots cast during One Stop Early Voting in Polk County, compared to 2,793 ballots cast on Tuesday. 

Polk County’s early voting turnout was more than the early voting during the 2008 and 2012 primaries but did not surpass the 2016 early voting turnout in Polk County, according to board of elections director Cliff Marr. 

During early voting, more democratic ballots were cast than republican ballots, as well as on Primary Election Day. 

Early voting saw 1,047 democratic ballots cast, compared to 934 republican ballots. 

On Tuesday, there were 1,462 democratic ballots cast, compared to 1,319 republican ballots. 

There are also a total of 52 absentee ballots included in the unofficial results from Tuesday, with 39 of those being democrat, 12 republican and 1 libertarian. 

There are still approximately 40 absentee ballots that have not been received by the board of elections with some of those likely to be properly postmarked as well as 15 provisional ballots, which will have to be certified or not by the board of elections. 

The results will not be official until the board of elections conducts the official canvassing of votes.