Record number of local votes cast

By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
A record number of Hartselle voters turned out at the polls on Tuesday to choose a president, U.S. senator, U.S. congressman, three State Supreme Court justices and four county officials.
Ballots cast at the city's two voting centers, not including absentees, totaled 6,277, or about 73 percent of an estimated 8,500 registered voters. The largest previous vote occurred in November 2002 when 5,444 voters cast ballots in a wet-dry referendum.
It was a great day for democracy in Hartselle, agreed Elise Moore, inspector at the Sparkman Civic Center voting center.
"It's the biggest turnout for an election I've seen since I've worked here and that's been several years," she said.
An estimated 200 people were lined up waiting to vote there when the doors opened at 7 a.m. Poll workers said several voters were sitting in their cars and in lawn chairs in front of the civic enter when they arrived at 6 a.m.
The turnout was equally impressive at the American Legion home.
"We had voters lined up all the way to Sparkman Street when we opened the doors," inspector Mary Vice said. "There was not a time from 7 a.m. until noon that our workers were not busy processing voters."