By james art Voting continues at a record pace in Forsyth County, with nearly 14 percent of the county’s nearly 277,000 registered voters having cast ballots as of 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Forsyth County Board of Elections said 38,043 people had voted in the first four days of early voting through Sunday night, with 13 days left in early voting beginning Monday.
A total of 513 people registered and voted during early voting.
“Early voting activity so far has exceeded the total for the first four days of 2020,” Forsyth County Elections Director Tim Tsuji said early Monday afternoon.
In 2020, 33,556 voters cast ballots during the first four days of voting, which, as in 2024, included a shortened early voting day on the first Sunday after early voting began.
Figures for 2020 show just over 12% of registered voters in the county cast ballots in the first four days.
As on the first day of early voting last Thursday, when 13,009 people turned out to vote, polling stations in the suburbs recorded the highest number of voters.
The Paddison Library in Kernersville initially held the crown for the most voters, with 1,424 voters on Thursday and 1,364 on Friday. On Saturday, with fewer voters overall, the Clemmons branch library was in first place with 868 voters. On Sunday, with just four hours of voting, the Louisville branch library came out on top with 426 votes.
Tsujii said he was “very happy with the turnout and the sites are running with very little issues.”
“I extend my sincerest thanks to all of the early voting officers who work tirelessly to serve the voters of our district,” Tsuji said.
The county has an app on its webpage that gives early voting wait times at all 18 early voting precincts in the county so voters can shop around to see where the lines are shortest.
Unlike the election day voting situation where voters go to their homes to cast their ballots, any eligible county resident can vote at any of the 18 locations.
Around 3:15 p.m. Monday, wait times of more than an hour were shown for polling places in Louisville, Rural Hall and at Miller Park in Winston-Salem. Wait times of between a half and an hour were reported for both the Kernersville polling stations and the Clemons and Polo Park polling stations.
The First Tee in Winston Lake has consistently lagged behind in early voting, with only 462 people voting there over four days and no wait time at 3:15pm on Monday. In contrast, nearly 4,000 people voted over the four days at the Paddington Library in Kernersville.
Statewide, 12 percent of the state’s registered voters cast ballots in the first four days of early voting. The NC State Board of Elections said a count of absentee ballots already returned shows more than one million state residents have voted.