By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Ed Booth was working.
Like numerous other candidates, the incumbent, Democratic Beaufort County commissioner spent much of Tuesday’s primary election traveling from polling place to polling place within the county.
“I try to just show my face,” said Booth, stationed in front of the P.S. Jones-Ward 3 polling place in Washington on Tuesday afternoon.
The casually attired incumbent was slightly horse, a condition he said has persisted for a couple of weeks. He shifted his weight from his left foot to his right foot as a handful of voters approached.
“By 7:30 tonight, we’ll be fine,” he said, referring to the time at which the polls closed.
Booth was one of four Democrats attempting to win his party’s nomination to run for three available seats on the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners.
“I’m shooting for at least three,” he said. “That’s all I care about.”
By the end of the night, it was clear Booth had done considerably better than third place.
Booth racked up 1,669 votes, 801 more votes than his closest competitor, Sonya Shamseldin.
Shamseldin came in second with 868 votes, and Jerry Evans ranked third with 680.
Darwin Woolard came in fourth with 541 votes.
As the returns came in, an exuberant Booth, positioned inside the county elections offices, occasionally pumped his fists and quietly exclaimed, “Yes.”
Booth’s enthusiasm was dampened occasionally, but only slightly.
“Uh-oh,” Jerry Langley, Democratic chairman of the board of commissioners, said when it was learned that Booth placed second in the Hunters Bridge precinct.
“That’s OK,” Booth replied.
Booth attributed his first-place standing to direct campaign methods.
One other factor that may have played a role in his number was the significant voter participation in the Democratic commissioner primary.
Unofficial returns showed that 3,758 people marked ballots in that primary.
The returns also showed that 2,229 people filled in ovals on the ballots in the Republican commissioner primary.
Incumbent GOP Commissioner Stan Deatherage dominated in that primary, scoring 854 votes, 288 more votes than incumbent Al Klemm, the second-place finisher with 566 votes.
In third place was Cindy Baldwin, who garnered 345 votes.
Tony “T.J.” Keech got 297 votes, and Buddy Harrell came in last with 167 votes.
Deatherage won all but three of the county’s 21 precincts.
Baldwin won the Surry-Bath precinct in which she resides, and Klemm won Gilead and P.S. Jones precincts.
Deatherage was the favorite almost from the word “go.”
When the one-stop, early voting totals were released Tuesday evening, Deatherage was the GOP leader out of the gate.
Though one-stop numbers don’t always indicate how a race will end up, Deatherage retained his No. 1 status.
As the precinct figures were being projected on a screen at the elections offices, Deatherage looked on quietly, flanked by his daughter, Brandia, and fellow GOP Commissioner Hood Richardson.
Overall, the 19.5-percent, countywide turnout was very close to the projection offered by Kellie Harris Hopkins, Beaufort County’s elections director. Hopkins had predicted 20-percent turnout.
According to county elections officials, 6,127 people voted in Beaufort County. The county has 31,417 registered voters, Anita Branch, deputy elections director, related Tuesday.
Statewide, turnout was 14.37 percent, reads the State Board of Elections’ Web site.
Of more than 6.1 million registered voters, 878,910 cast ballots, the Web site shows.
Despite fair interest in the commissioner bouts, the local race that drew the most participation involved the District Court hopefuls in the 2nd Judicial District.
The returns demonstrated that 6,090 county voters voted in that race. This means there were just 37 “undervotes” — or failures to mark that section of the ballot — in the judicial contest.
Before Tuesday, area pundits surmised the judicial race would be the big-ticket item on primary day because all four of the judicial candidates were local, and, by all appearances, that prediction held true.
Also, this nonpartisan race was on all of the ballots — GOP, Republican and nonpartisan — in the county.
Now that the primary season is over, the nominees will begin their jog to the finish line on Nov. 2.
Boards of elections statewide will canvass election results at 11 a.m. Tuesday, and unofficial totals are subject to change during canvassing.