In ones and twos, voters drifted in to Guy Benjamin and Julius E. Sprauve schools for Saturday’s primary election.
“It’s slow but people are coming,” said Alvis Christian, who was working a table outside Guy Benjamin School supporting senator-at-large candidate Ronnie Jones.
Stephen Hull was at the adjacent table supporting incumbent Sen. Craig Barshinger, who is running to retain his at-large seat.
“The primary is always a low voter turnout,” Hull said.
At Sprauve School, Manno Boyd was ready with flyers for Jones and senatorial candidate Kent Bernier. While he supported those two candidates, he said that more importantly, people should come out to vote to be part of the system.
People campaigning for the Gov. John deJongh Jr./Lt. Gov. Gregory Francis and Sen. Adlah “Foncie” Donastorg/Samuel Baptiste teams running for the territory’s top offices were more numerous than those touting senatorial candidates.
No supporters were spotted for the James A. O’Bryan/Pamela R. Samuel and Gerard Luz James II and Glen J. Smith teams also vying for places at Government House.
Gubernatorial team supporters at both Guy Benjamin and Sprauve schools said that it seemed like voters’ minds were already made up because there were few requests for information.
“There have been no questions asked,” said Myrna George, who was supporting the deJongh/Francis team.
The voters who did turn out took their responsibility seriously.
“I want to vote for people who are going to make my life and other people’s lives much better,” Gerry Londergan said outside Sprauve School.
Theresa Worrell said she finds elections exciting because some people want change and some people want things to stay the same.
At Guy Benjamin, Sandy Mohler viewed voting as her civic duty.
“I care about the issues,” she said.
Those issues are a desire for the territory to run smoothly, encouragement of the economy and respect for equal rights, Mohler said.
Larry Best sees that there only a very few good candidates, and he voted so he could support them.
“I think the good candidates will be elected because the others are so weak,” he said.
At 8:45 a.m. 23 people had voted at Guy Benjamin School. The total reached 82 at Sprauve School at 9:57 a.m. Elections officials at both polling places expected the numbers to rise substantially before the 7 p.m. closing time.
“It’s a good turnout for the primary,” Election official Gwendolyn Hyndman said at Sprauve School.
