Election Day happenings - voting slow and steady

Voting was slow but steady as Havelock residents came out to choose their next mayor and two commissioners on Tuesday.

“Usually the turnout is slow for mayor and commissioner, especially this year since there are only three seats, but I do know that the seniors are turning out,” Bill Harrison, an election official, said as he watched voters cast their ballots in the Havelock East precinct voting place at Performing Arts Center at Havelock High School.

One of the voters Harrison watched slide her ballot into the counting machine was long-time Havelock resident Gettie Lewis, age 91.

“I’ve voted ever since I was old enough to vote,” Lewis said.

That would have been back in 1936, more than two decades before she got the chance to cast a vote in the very first city election ever held in Havelock back in 1959.

The city celebrated 50 years of incorporation this year, and Lewis happens to be the grandmother to one of the commissioner candidate Will Lewis, who was running for re-election.

Havelock East Precinct Judge Susie Bare was impressed with the turnout.

“We’ve done great,” she said. “Actually, I’m pleased with the numbers of voters.

“The weather’s nice. That makes a big difference. I think it’s gone very well.”

As of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, 347 votes had been cast in the city, 206 in the Havelock East precinct and 141 in the Havelock West precinct at Tucker Creek Middle School, according to Erin Burridge, director of the Craven County Board of Elections.

Polls remain open until 7:30 p.m. today.

“This isn’t a big turnout election,” said Bryant Banks, who had just cast his vote in the Havelock West precinct at Tucker Creek.

Banks happened to have been one of 55 voters at the precinct that encountered the only minor irregularity in voting procedure Tuesday.

According to Precinct Judge Shirley Selepes, the trouble came as a result of a misprinting of two books of voter labels that were delivered with the sticky adhesive on the wrong side of the paper.

It meant that the bar-coded labels with voter name and address had to be taped to the back of the Authorization to Vote document, instead of being affixed to the front.

The Craven County Board of Elections quickly had another set of labels printed correctly and delivered to the precinct.

“There was a misprint of the labels, but the information was correct,” said Burridge. “They’ve gone through it and verified that there were no duplications. We had a temporary solution, but it worked.”

Burridge said that one other precinct in the county had a label book partially printed backwards just like Havelock.

Some of the candidates and other campaigners visited the two polling places greeting voters as they walked up.

“This is a social event more than a political event,” said Danny Walsh, a city commissioner not running for office this election. “When people get here, they already know who they’re going to vote for. It’s just good to see everybody that you usually don’t get a chance to see.”

Earlier Tuesday morning, about four or five people showed up on Fontana Boulevard, East Main Street and U.S. 70 with signs reading “Re-elect No One.” One of those was Bill Harper, a former Craven County commissioner and government critic who doesn’t even live in Havelock and is thus ineligible to vote in the city’s election.

Havelock residents will vote for one of four mayoral candidates, Charles "Chuck" Barnard, Samuel L. Colly Jr., Matthew L. "Sugarbear" Jones and incumbent Jimmy Sanders.

Residents will vote for two of three commissioner candidates, challenger Bernd G. Doss and incumbents William L. Lewis Jr. and James L. Stuart.

In the city’s last mayoral election in 2005, 942 votes were cast for mayor.

Return to www.havenews.com for updates and results.