Just shy of 10,000 voters in Macon County went to the polls to cast their ballots in the Primary Election. Only 37 percent of the county’s 25,702 registered voters participated in the election.
According to MC Board of Elections Deputy Director Gary Tallent, that’s pretty good for Macon County.
“In 2016 about the same number of voters turned out and the state reported that Macon County’s turnout for early voting was better than most other counties,” he said.
The only Macon County specific race on the ballot was for Macon County Board of Commissioners District II, with the Republican winner being Josh Young with 2,482 votes and the Democrat winner being Betty Cloer Wallace with 1,768 votes. Young and Wallace will face off against each other this November.
Macon County native Kevin Corbin received nearly 88 percent of the votes cast for Senate District 50 in Macon County and won the entire district by 78 percent (19,991) against challenger, Sarah Conway. Macon County voters cast 1,901 votes for Kaleb Wingate in the District Court judge race – Wingate won the entire district with over 10,000, or 40 percent, of the votes.
Rep. Mark Meadows’ United States House of Representative District 11 seat resulted in a runoff between Haywood County Republican Lynda Bennett and Henderson County Republican Madison Cawthorn. Despite receiving the endorsement of Congressman Mark Meadows, Bennett was unable to secure 30 percent of the overall vote required to avoid a runoff election. Bennett and Cawthorn were separated by around 2,000 votes. Bennett got 20,510 votes; Cawthorne got 18,418 votes.
The runoff election will take place on May 12 with the winner appearing on the November ballot against Democrat Moe Davis who won his party’s nomination with nearly 50 percent of the votes.
Although Macon County native Jim Davis received just under 3,000 votes in his home county, he trailed Cawthorn by over 1,000 votes in the final tally. Statewide he got 17,400 votes.
Macon County Democrats cast 1,437 votes for Joe Biden in the Presidential race, followed by 735 for Bernie Sanders and 454 for Mike Bloomberg. Statewide Democrats cast 568,578 votes for Biden to be one of the nine states he won March 3 during the 16-state Super Tuesday race. By press time Biden had won Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas.
Macon County Republicans backed President Donald Trump casting 94 percent of votes in his favor.
Canvassing day will be held on Friday, March 13 at which point all results will be considered final.
By Brittney Lofthouse