By Nathan Ham
It was a very busy day in Watauga County for the first day of early voting. A total of 1,701 voters cast their ballots on Wednesday, making it an even busier day than the first day of early voting during the 2016 presidential election, that according to Matthew Snyder, the Director of the Watauga County Board of Elections.
The early voting site on the campus of Appalachian State had the most votes yesterday with 723. The Watauga County Administration Building saw 530 voters while 141 people voted at the Western Watauga Community Center, 136 voters came out to early vote in Bowing Rock, 99 in Deep Gap and 72 in Meat Camp.
“It was a busy day and a big turnout, we’re really happy to see folks getting out to vote. We still have 11 and a half days left of early voting,” Snyder said.
As has been the trend across the country, getting newly registered voters has been a priority in Watauga County. There were 601 new registered voters between September 15 and October 13, the final day of voter registration. 160 of those voters registered as Democrat, 103 registered as Republicans and 315 registered as unaffiliated.