With less than two hours until the polls close, voter turnout has been high throughout the Historic Triangle.
By 3 p.m., more than half of James City County’s registered voters had gone to the polls to cast their ballot.
According to JCC General Registrar Dianna Moorman, the county saw a 55.88 percent turnout at the polls. With absentee ballots included, that number increased to 70.58 percent.
“For the most part, everything at the polls is going smooth today,” said Moorman. “The one issue — and we always get some of this — is that people who moved eight or 12 years ago are just now trying to register to vote today. We just have to say ‘unfortunately you moved outside the grace period.’ We try to be diplomatic about it, but you do have to take responsibility for your registration at some point.”
The highest turnout in James City County came from the Berkeley A precinct, which includes the areas of Brook Haven, Jamestown Farms, Indigo Park and White Oaks. By 3 p.m., 61 percent of the registered voters in Berkeley A had turned out to vote — and that figure increases to 76 percent with absentee ballots included.
While one of the lowest turnout rates in the county came from the Roberts B precinct (at 48 percent), the area that is home to Kingsmill turned in 1,044 absentee ballots, bringing the precinct’s total turnout to 76 percent.
In York County, 72 percent of active voters had voted by 4 p.m., according to York County General Registrar Walt Latham. The total number of voter turnout was at 66 percent, including active and inactive voters.
Williamsburg saw roughly a 75 percent turnout as of 5 p.m., according to City Registrar Win Sowder. That estimate includes 6,891 active voters, including absentee ballots.
“For a presidential election, it’s a little higher than normal,” Sowder said. “But we thought it would be a large turnout for this election in particular.”
Update: JCC General Registrar reported that as of 6 p.m., the voter turnout for the county was at 73.34 percent. This surpasses the county’s 70.12 percent turnout for the 2012 presidential election.
