Yes, the voter registration deadline for the May 6 primary election was Friday, April 11 at 5 p.m. However, new legislation enacted by the General Assembly last year makes it possible for Personians to register at any one of three one-stop voting locations in Person County and cast a ballot at the same time. Same day registration applies to the early voting period only, however. It will not be allowed at the polls on May 6.

The one-stop voting sites in Person County are the Person County Board of Elections Office at 331 S. Morgan St., the Person County Public Library at 319 S. Main St. and the Timberlake Volunteer Fire Department at 350 Ashley Ave. in Timberlake.

Their hours of operation are listed on a separate story on this page.

At the close of the registration deadline on April 11, Person County had 22,881 registered voters. That number was up by 1,316 voters, or 6.0 percent, from the same time period two years ago.

Of that number, 12,818 were registered as Democrats, a jump of 336 (2.7 percent) from 2006; 5,735 were registered as Republicans, an increase of 224 (4.0 percent) over 2006; and 4,328 were unaffiliated, a surge of 756 (21.2 percent) from two years ago.

Person County’s white voter population increased by 871 (5.5 percent) since April of 2006 and now stands at 16,590. The black voter population, which is currently listed at 5,818, increased by 373 (6.9 percent) during that same time span.

Person County still has more women registered to vote than men. An increase of 663 from two years ago gives the county 12,497 registered females, while the male voter total grew by 618 and stands at 10,321. But during the past two years, men have registered at a greater rate (6.4 percent) than women (5.6 percent).

A majority of those changes have taken place since January of this year, according to information gathered by Person County Elections Director Brenda Whitlow as of Tuesday morning.

And, much of that could be attributed to the hotly contested race for the Democratic nomination for president between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

In most presidential election years, the nominations are pretty much locked up by the time North Carolina voters get to weigh in. It’s a completely different story this year.

Since January, 189 black women and 142 black men have registered to vote. Of those numbers, 163 of the women and 114 of the men registered as Democrats and will be eligible to cast ballots in the primary election.

Also since January, an additional 246 white men registered to vote and 294 white women registered. The majority of those, however, registered as unaffiliated. Eighty-nine white men and 107 additional white women had registered as unaffiliated since January.

Eighty-one of the 246 white men who registered since January went on the books as Republicans and 76 as Democrats, while the Republican count for white women rose by 96 compared to an increase of 91 Democrats.