The first step to the November general election was completed as polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday evening. Including early ballots, 9,036 votes were cast of 32,430 registered voters in Beaufort County, which is 27.8 percent of the county’s registered voters.

During the Presidential primary in 2012, 11,766 votes were cast in Beaufort County, and during the midterm election primary in 2010 only 6,127.

A general election, according to Kellie Hopkins, Beaufort County Board of Elections director, usually pulls in between 60 and 70 percent of registered voters, while the primary turnout average is 30 percent of registered voters.

Numbers were slightly down from 2012, but the two hot races in Beaufort County brought many people out to the polls. The most anticipated primary elections in Beaufort County were the Sheriff’s and Commissioners’ races.

“Twenty to 30 percent is average,” Hopkins said. “With this sheriff’s race this year, with so many candidates on both sides, plus the Republican county commissioners, it did create some buzz in the community.”

“With the current sheriff (Alan Jordan) retiring this year and having nine candidates, the more candidates, the more the public is going to be involved in the election,” Hopkins said.

The Republican sheriff race saw Harry Meredith edged out Ernie Coleman, but Coleman can ask for a June second primary election because Meredith did not earn 40 percent of votes.

On the Democratic side of the sheriff’s race, Russell Davenport came in first, just 45 votes, in front of second place finisher Al Whitney. Like Meredith, Davenport did not come away with 40 percent of the votes, and it is expected Whitney will ask for runoff election.

“If any of those candidates in the sheriff’s race did not garner 40 percent of the vote, then the second place finisher can request a second primary or a runoff election between the first place vote getter and themselves,” Hopkins said.

The highly anticipated Beaufort County Commissioners race saw Frankie Waters, Ron Buzzeo and Keith Kidwell each earn the Republican nomination for the November election.

Waters grossed the highest number of votes Tuesday with 1,146 votes, with Buzzeo tallying 1,097 and Kidwell 780.

The runoff election is scheduled for June 24, and board of elections will finalize all the votes after the mail-in and absentee ballots are counted by Tuesday, May 13.

According to Hopkins, the primary ran smoothly, with a few minor glitches. The key to North Creek’s polling apparatus failed, so the machine had to be delivered to the Board of Elections to be opened. However, it was a simple fix by using another key. New software being used by the state slowed down elections results loading to the state elections board’s website, as well, Hopkins said. She attributed the lag between the local board submitting results and the state website posting results to a load issue—too much data at once on untried software.

“This is why our board is has always liked releasing our counts here, because it makes our county happy,” Hopkisns said.