With three and a half days left in the early voting period, it’s been slow and steady since early voting began last week, according to Anita Bullock Branch, deputy director of the Beaufort County Board of Elections.

Last week, 185 Beaufort County voters marked ballots, 74 on Thursday and 111 on Friday. Early voting resumed Tuesday morning, after the Memorial Day holiday, with 97 voters marking ballots. So far, 282 voters have voted early.

As of Saturday, Beaufort County had 32,382 registered voters. By Tuesday evening, less than 1 percent of the county’s voters had participated in early voting. Statewide, 72,369 of the state’s 6,588,451 voters (a little more than 1 percent) had participated in early voting as of Tuesday morning.

Elections officials attribute the low voter turnout for early voting to confusion among voters. Many voters believe they’ve already voted for candidates seeking seats in the U.S. House. Well, they did and they did not, according to Branch. Although the ballots used for the March 15 primaries included the names of U.S. House candidates in contested primaries, votes for those candidates were not counted. They were not counted because the primaries for those candidates were moved to June 7.

Early voting for the June 7 primary continues from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, Thursday and Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Board of Elections office, 1308 Highland Drive, Suite 104, Washington. Across the state, voters are marking ballots in primaries to determine political parties’ nominees for the U.S. House of Representatives. Also, four candidates are competing in a primary for associate justice on the N.C. Supreme Court. The top two vote-getters in the judicial contest will move on to the general election in November.

In Beaufort County, voters are selecting nominees in the 3^rd Congressional District. Incumbent Walter B. Jones, seeking a 12^th consecutive two-year term, faces challenges from Phil Law and Taylor Griffin. The winner of the June 7 GOP primary takes on the winner of the Democratic primary for the 3^rd District seat. David Allan Hurst and Ernest T. Reeves face each other in the Democratic primary.

Four of the five candidates (Reeves did not file in the initial filing period) were forced to re-file as the result of a ruling by a three-member panel of judges declared two of North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts, including the 1^st District, unconstitutional because race was used in setting their boundaries and set Feb. 19 as the deadline for redrawn district maps to be submitted. As a result of that ruling, the North Carolina General Assembly approved a new map depicting the state’s 13 congressional districts. The new maps place all of Beaufort County in the 3^rd District. Previously, part of the county was in the 3^rd District and the remaining part of the county was in the 1^st District, represented by U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat.

At that time, the Legislature delayed the primaries for the U.S. House until June 7. Under that new plan, the candidate receiving the most votes in a primary would automatically win the primary and would not have to receive at least 40 percent of the votes cast, an exception to existing state law.