WILSON, N.C. Election Day brought more voters to the polls in what is expected to be a record-breaking turnout. In Wilson County, nearly half of all registered voters had cast their ballot for the general election during early voting. According to the Wilson County Board of Elections, there were 55,977 registered voters before early voting began on Oct. 20 and 56,478 active and inactive voters on the books as of Monday. A total of 24,484 voted early and when mail-in ballots are included in the total, the number is expected to rise to 25,000. According to the N.C. State Board of Elections unofficial results, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Deborah Ross each topped their opponents in Wilson County in early voting. Clinton garnered 55 percent of the early vote (13,436) to Republican nominee Donald Trump’s 43 percent (10,510), while Ross held a 54.5 percent to 43.7 percent edge over incumbent Sen. Richard Burr.”We’ve worked very hard with the county Democratic Party to spread the word about our candidates and voting. We have seen a tremendous amount of young people jumping in to volunteer at polling sites to help get out the vote,” said Vedas Neal of Elm City, a volunteer with the Wilson County Democratic Party. The Wilson County Republican Party has been equally busy getting voters and volunteers to the polls as well as candidate information distributed. “Republicans have been enthusiastic and eager to participate in this election,” said Ronnie Sutton, precinct chairman for the Wilson County Republican Party. “Voter turnout in the town of Black Creek was heavy this morning, but here in Wilson it’s been lighter at the polls as many people voted early.”
