Voter turnout strong in Cape Girardeau, more heading to polls before close

With just a short time to go before polls close, a spot check of nine precincts around Cape Girardeau showed that turnout was running from about 40 percent to as much as almost 60 percent.

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark had predicted that as many as 85 percent of the county's more than 51,000 voters would cast ballots today. All of the spot-checks were conducted before lines began forming with people returning from work.

The biggest turnout was in Precinct 17, which votes at the Arena Building. Shortly before 5 p.m., 1,672 out of the 2,853 voters registered in the voting district had cast ballots, or 58.6 percent of the total.

The lowest turnout numbers were being recorded in precincts where turnout traditionally is below the county average. But in those locations, election officials were encouraged by the turnout they were seeing and, in some cases, the percentage of votes cast was equaling or exceeding precincts elsewhere.

By 4 p.m., a line 40 deep had formed at Centenary Methodist Church at 300 N. Ellis St. The precinct, one of the closest to the Southeast Missouri State University, had voted 48.6 percent of the 2,206 registered.

And at Red Star Baptist Church, where election officials recorded one of the largest increases in voter registration in the county, turnout stood at 52.3 percent of the 1,649 voters and a dozen more were waiting to cast ballots.

Clark, who was at the Arena Building checking on voting issues, said there were few problems in the county once balky ballot counting machines had been replaced early in the day.

"It is very busy, extremely busy," said Clark, who is conducting her first presidential election since taking the office in 2006. "It is going good. Little situations are occurring, but everybody is pitching in as much as they can."

Voting continues until 7 p.m. Voters in line when the polls closed will be allowed to vote, but doors to the polling stations will be locked as soon as those voters have been brought inside.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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