By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • With a few days still to go in the one-stop early voting, turnout ahead of election day continued to be strong as people go to the polls to choose local, state and federal elections.

By close of day Monday over 4,760 Hoke County voters had cast an early ballot during the one-stop voting period, according to numbers from Hoke County Board of Elections Director Chassidy Chavis.

The turnout included 3,029 votes cast at the Board of Elections early voting site and 1,737 votes cast at the Rockfish Community Building site. Of the people who chose to vote during one-stop early voting, 2,702 were registered Democrats, 924 registered Republicans, 1,131 registered Unaffiliated, eight registered Libertarians and one registered Green Party.

The first day of early voting on October 20 had the highest total number of voters with 688. Most of the other days have seen between 300-500 voters per day during one-stop early voting, based on the numbers, with lower turnout typical on Saturdays.

This year’s election will decide multiple local races including three seats on the Hoke County Board of Education, three seats on the Hoke County Board of Commissioners and the office of Hoke County Sheriff. State and federal representation for Hoke County is also up for vote this year.

Early voting opened Wednesday, October 20 and runs until this Saturday, November 5. The hours are Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-7:30 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m.-3 p.m. There is no early voting on Sundays for this election.

Voters can cast a ballot during one-stop early voting at either the Board of Elections office at 227 North Main Street in Raeford; or at the Rockfish Community Building, 2749 Lindsay Road.

All precincts will be open for voting Tuesday, November 8. Polling places will be open that day from 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.

For questions or more information, visit https://www.hokecounty.net/235/Elections or call the Hoke County Board of Elections.

The News-Journal will be providing the live election results at the office at 119 West Elwood Avenue in Raeford the night of the election after polling places close. Citizens are welcome to stop by to see the updates as each precinct delivers its ballots and they are added to the totals. Results will also go up online the night of the election. Check The News-Journal on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/raefordnewsjournal, or at www.hokenews.com for a link after polling places close election night.