If you haven’t registered to vote or need to change your registration information, you have until close of business Friday, June 25 to do so or you can’t vote in the July 20 primary.
Don’t worry, though, you won’t be alone. In fact, the statistics show that voting is terrifically unpopular even among registered voters. Though true turnout numbers are hard to gauge, a look at the returns from our coverage area in the 2002 primary paints a bleak picture for the health of the republic.
Two years ago, 78 percent of those registered in Wake County didn’t bother to show up at the polls. Likewise in Durham County, where 73 percent of the registered voters also didn’t seem to care enough about the school board or who faces who in the commissioner races to mark their ballots. Orange County saw a whopping 81 percent of its voters opt out.
And in Chatham, though a hot commissioner race boosted turnout, it appears that 60 percent of those registered just stayed home and said “Bunkey who?”
See our election coverage on page 19 for registration information, and ask not what your county can do for you.
