Why are there so many more voters casting ballots in Wake than Mecklenburg?
In Tuesday’s primary election, there were more voters in both the Democratic and Republican primaries in Wake County than in Mecklenburg.
That's a little strange because there are nearly 30,000 more registered voters in Mecklenburg - 571,889, according to the State Board of Elections Web site, compared to 542,358 in Wake.
But the highest number of voters in any race in the two counties showed that more Democrats and more Republicans turned out to vote in Wake than in Mecklenburg. That's based only on the current unofficial returns posted on the board of elections' Web site, and the figures could change.
In the Democratic presidential primary, 162,936 voters turned out in Wake, but only 150,561 in Mecklenburg.
In the Republican primaries, 45,587 Republicans turned out to vote in the presidential primary in Wake; in Mecklenburg, the largest turnout of Republicans was not in the presidential primary but the gubernatorial race: 43,278 Republicans. (Only 43,067 turned out to vote in the presidential primary, which of course wasn’t the top draw on the ballot, with Sen. John McCain all but having it wrapped up, while local Mayor Pat McCrory was a big draw in the governor's race.)
What do you think accounts for the apparent greater interest in voting in Wake? And does that say anything about other differences between the state's two population centers?
