Thursday marked the beginning of early voting in the primaries for seven of the nine seats on Greensboro’s City Council.
Offices up for primary election include mayor, three at-large seats and the seats for Districts 2, 3 and 4.
Voters trickled into the early voting site at the Old Guilford County Courthouse Thursday morning, with a little more than 30 having cast a ballot in the first two hours of the voting period.
Some of those who came to vote early on the first day shared their thoughts on the candidates and issues important to them.
Demetria Carter said she was a Republican who came out to support candidates she views as conservative.
She said voted for Robbie Perkins for mayor, Carla Franklin and Richard Beard in the at-large race and Jim Kee in District 2.
The race for council is nonpartisan, but Perkins and Kee are registered Republicans.
Beard is an unaffiliated voter who has primarily voted in Republican primaries, while Franklin is unaffiliated with a history of voting in Democratic primaries.
“Their values are very much like my values,” Carter said. “They are Republican or conservative-leaning, and therefore because this county is, I call it ‘tax-happy,’ I want to see more stewardship of my tax dollars. I want conservative values to be the order of the day.”
Carter alluded to the upcoming revaluation of property next year and the expectations that residents will end up paying more in property taxes.
“I’d like a counter to that,” Carter said. “I’d like someone to say, ‘There’s enough money here.’ We don’t need to raise taxes.”
Another voter, Ed Gideon, 76, said he believes the city needs to move in a different direction.
“We need big changes in Greensboro in our government,” Gideon said.
Like Carter, Gideon said he voted for Perkins and Franklin as well as District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny, a registered Republican.
“We’ve got way too much crime,” Gideon said. “We’ve got way too much of an influx of homeless. We need to have some people out there that will pay attention to how the government needs to be run, make it look more like a business, actually have budgets and keep them and maintain them.”
Cherie Holderness, 69, declined to say who she voted for specifically but said she voted mainly for conservative candidates.
“I’d just like some fresh leadership in there,” Holderness said. “I do think we are a little bit stagnant, and we need to push for the development downtown.”
She said she felt that the city is behind cities such as Durham when it comes to economic development.
“I’d just like to see us push forward a little bit,” she said.
Mary Hill, 73, said she was Democrat said she voted for incumbent Councilman Hugh Holston, Denise Turner Roth and Michael McKinney in the at-large race. Hill said she knew those candidates and that “they are good for the job.”
As she looked over a campaign pamphlet for Holston, Hill commented on homelessness and public safety as issues of concern.
“It is a lot of homeless people out here and if he could get them a house to stay in, one of them little small houses, that would be good and that safety come in with that,” Hill said.
Early voting for the primary ends Oct. 4. The primary day is Oct. 7.
kevin.griffin@greensboro.com
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