By Ben Rappaport
Voter turnout in rural southeastern North Carolina was lower this year than it was in the 2020 general election, unofficial results show.
All of the Border Belt counties — Bladen, Columbus, Robeson and Scotland — saw fewer voters than in 2020 and lagged behind the statewide turnout rate of 73%, according to unofficial vote counts from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
The decline follows a statewide trend: North Carolina’s turnout was down by more than 2 percentage points from 2020.
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This year, Robeson County had the lowest turnout in the state with just 59% of eligible voters casting ballots. Columbus and Scotland counties also ranked within the bottom 25 across the state in turnout.
Robeson and Scotland were also among the bottom 10 counties for turnout in the 2020 election, according to Democracy NC. Columbus was in the bottom 25 counties.
Voter turnout in Border Belt counties decreased by roughly 2 to 3 percentage points. The largest decline was in Bladen County, where voter turnout was down nearly 4 percentage points from 2020.
It’s still too early to say why turnout was lower in rural southeastern North Carolina and across the state. Democrats and Republicans tried to re-engage rural voters by opening campaign field offices, running targeted ads, and hosting canvassing events and candidate listening tours.
The low figures might be surprising given the state’s record-setting early voter turnout, when 4.2 million ballots were cast, accounting for 57% of the state’s 7.8 million registered voters.
Election officials and party chairs across the Border Belt reported a smooth election, aside from minor technical glitches. The issues were quickly resolved and were not significant enough to cause delays or affect turnout, officials told Border Belt Independent Wednesday morning.
“Everyone who wanted to cast a ballot in Robeson County was able to,” said Tina Bledsoe, election director for Robeson County. “No real issues and everything we had was incredibly minor. I think it was a great, fantastic day for the county.”
Bledsoe said she was encouraged by the increase in participation the county has seen since 2016, when many residents in the county were displaced by Hurricane Matthew. That year, Robeson County had a 54% voter turnout, while the statewide rate was 69%.
“We had no complaints and didn’t hear of any issues or incidents,” said Felicia Brown, Columbus County senior elections specialist. “Anything that may have happened was resolved quickly and taken care of at the respective precinct.”
