Only 28.5 percent of Buncombe County’s registered voters turned out for Tuesday’s primary election, which is a sharp decline from the last two times a presidential contest was on the ballot.
Unofficial results showed 59,331 people cast ballots this cycle, either via early voting, absentee ballots or at polling places on primary election day.
That’s compared to 82,518 (42.11 percent) who turned out for the primary in 2020, or the 78,605 (42.22 percent) who turned out in 2016.
The big difference: less competition at the top of the ticket. The 2020 and 2016 primaries both featured hotly-contested presidential nominating contests in the Republican and Democratic parties.
This year, incumbent President Joe Biden has been breezing toward another Democratic Party nomination. In Buncombe County, he racked up 84.58 percent of the vote, with “No Preference” as his closest competion with 15.42 percent. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump appears to have a clear path to the Republican Party nomination, and he took 63.78 percent of the Buncombe County vote to 33.37 percent for former ambassador Nikki Haley.
“I just want to thank all the voters who came out today to make their voices count,” Buncombe County Elections Director Corinne Duncan said in a release. “You are the people choosing who we will see on the ballot in November. Precincts across the County ran smoothly today with no issues. Voters saw some new procedures in place with the photo ID requirement and ExpressVote ballot marking machines utilized during early voting. As always, thank you to all the voters, poll workers, election officials, commissioners, observers, candidates, parties, our board members, and all the county and city departments that work with us to make it all happen.”
Preliminary absentee results were posted at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and all early voting and a smattering of precincts had reported by 8:30 p.m. As of 9:35 p.m., all precincts had been counted. Provisional and some absentee ballots remain.