Person County Elections Director Brenda Whitlow said Friday afternoon that she was “somewhat surprised” at the relatively light turnout.

One stop, or early, voting began Thursday at the Person County Board of Elections Office at 331 S. Morgan St. and the Person County Public Library at 319 S. Main St.

One stop voting is offered each Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. through Friday, May 2. at both of those locations and will also be offered at those two sites on Saturday, May 3 from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m.

As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, however, the one stop voting option had been chosen by only 173 of Person County’s 22,800-plus registered voters.

“It’s been really slow,” Whitlow said. “I would have thought it would have been more people showing up, but I guess they still have plenty of time left.”

Whitlow said there were 44 ballots cast at the board of elections office Thursday and, as of 2:30 p.m. Friday, 31 additional ballots had been cast at the site. At the library, 49 people voted on Thursday and 48 more had cast ballots by mid-afternoon Friday.

A third one stop voting site is set to open in the county on Monday, at the Timberlake Volunteer Fire Department at 350 Ashley Ave. in Timberlake.

The hours of one stop voting in Timberlake will be from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on April 21-22, 24 and 26-30. The hours of one stop voting in Timberlake on April 23, 25 and May 1-2 will be 11 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. No early voting will be offered on May 3 in Timberlake.

Persons who have not previously registered to vote can do so while one stop voting is being offered. In accordance with legislation passed by the General Assembly last year, Person County residents can register at any one of the three one stop voting locations in Person County and cast a ballot at the same time.