Iredell voting numbers climb

Nearly 90 percent of Iredell County’s voting-age population is officially registered for the Nov. 4 election, according to preliminary figures released by the Iredell County Board of Elections.

Friday was the deadline for voters to submit their registration cards by mail or drop them off at Elections office.

Nearly 90 percent of Iredell County’s voting-age population is officially registered for the Nov. 4 election, according to preliminary figures released by the Iredell County Board of Elections.

Friday was the deadline for voters to submit their registration cards by mail or drop them off at Elections office.

By Saturday morning, there were 100,758 names on the voter rolls and counting.

That’s up significantly from Jan. 1, when only 88,743 voters were registered.

Elections Director Becky Galliher said her office is still accepting cards that were postmarked Oct. 10 and is working with other counties, just in case voters sent their information to the wrong county.

According to the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management, Iredell County’s population is around 154,421 with children under 18 accounting for 38,355 residents.

This puts the voting-age population for the county around 112,066.

The numbers have the chairmen from both political parties excited, and have some of the volunteers from the many voter registration drives patting themselves on the back.

“That is like 90 percent,” Iredell County Democratic Party Chairman Robert Stidd said on Saturday. “Now we have to motivate them to come out to vote. We are excited about it. We hope that the Board of Elections is prepared for the number of people who are going to show up in the polls.”

Iredell County Republican Party Chairman Charlton Allen said he hopes the newly registered Republicans and conservative Democrats will take advantage of the early-voting locations.

“We got a lot of strong candidates,” he said.

Tiffany Michols, president and founder of NC’s Finest Motorcycle Club, said it sounded like groups like hers that set out to register new voters accomplished their goal.

“I was still amazed that there was people who said they were not interested or they didn’t have time,” she said. “I just think this is the first time period that people on all levels have been affected. All of us are feeling some kind of impact of what is going on.”

Galliher said her office accepted registrations until the 5 p.m. deadline on Friday, when N.C. For Change dropped off its last batch of registration forms.

“We always do at the end of a registration period,” she said. “People are very interested in this election.”

By Bethany Fuller

Posted on 10/13/08 at 06:46 AM
Iredell County • (0) Comments

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