North Carolina’s voters steadily poured into polling sites to cast ballots in the presidential primary, where their votes weigh heavily thanks to the ongoing battle for the Democratic nod between Sen.
Hillary Clinton and Sen.
Barack Obama.
While voters also turned up for races closer to home, including for governor, the Senate and statewide office, the Democratic marathon to the White House upstaged local elections at the ballot box.
"The voters have won as a consequence of having the presidential contest come to North Carolina," Chapel Hill entrepreneur
Jim Neal, who’s running to unseat Republican Sen.
Elizabeth Dole in the November election, told the
Associated Press.
"It's galvanized and brought more people to the process,” Neal said.
A boom in voting is due in large part to the Democratic race for the presidency with 85 percent of unaffiliated voters who cast early ballots having chosen the Democratic ballot,
Gary Bartlett, director of the State Board of Elections, told the AP.
A modern-day record primary turnout is expected, with more than half of registered Democrats casting a ballot, according to Bartlett. He predicted GOP turnout would be fewer than 30 percent. Of the 5.8 million registered voters in the state, turnout should exceed 2 million, he said.
With possible record-breaking turn-out, voters’ concerns run the gamut from the economy to the Iraq war.
"I'm interested in a change, because of high prices, the boys overseas," said
Christine Hines, 84, who, along with her friend
Vivian Samuel, 78, cast votes for Obama in the Democratic presidential primary.
But Clinton also pulled in the votes in the state that—along with Indiana—analysts have said she must take to feasibly stay in the race.
Both Democratic presidential hopefuls hunkered down in the state making last-minute campaign stops. Clinton and former President
Bill Clinton made eleventh-hour pushes at four stops throughout the state while Obama and his wife
Michelle planned his election night party at a coliseum at North Carolina State University.
A retired architect from Raleigh,
Jim Ellis, 73, told the AP that he chose Clinton based on her experience and also due to the dust-up between Obama and his controversial former pastor Rev.
Jeremiah Wright.
"I came here not to vote for somebody but to vote against somebody," Ellis told the AP "I don't think he's qualified and when the cream comes to the surface... if he's elected president I think he's going to be a disappointment."
