Early voting for the Tuesday, July 26 Greensboro City Council election ends Saturday, July 23 at 3 p.m. at all early voting sites.

Predictions were that voter turnout for this unique summer City Council election would be low, and the early voting totals so far indicate those predictions will be accurate.

Through Wednesday, July 20, a total of 8,018 people had voted at the six early voting sites.  The record for low voter turnout is the Griffin Recreation Center, where a total of 652 people had voted through Wednesday. Griffin Recreation Center also holds the record for the lowest daily vote total.  On Sunday, July 17, during the seven hours the poll was open, only 11 people voted at Griffin Recreation Center.

Lewis Recreation Center has been the most popular early voting site with a total of 2,162 people casting their ballots there through Wednesday.

As election day gets closer, more people are taking advantage of early voting. The three heaviest days of early voting have been Monday, July 18 with 807 ballots cast, Tuesday, July 19 with 1,008 and Wednesday, July 20 with 951.

The slowest early voting day so far has been Sunday, July 17 with only 255 votes cast at the five early voting sites that were open.  The site in the Carolyn Coleman Conference Room in the Old Guilford County Court House was closed.

The top of the ballot usually has a large influence on voter turnout and the top of this ballot is the mayoral race with Mayor Nancy Vaughan and District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling, both running active campaigns.

The mayoral race became more interesting on June 13 when Chris Meadows announced a write-in campaign for mayor.  The late start and the disadvantage of not having his name on the ballot puts Meadows at a distinct disadvantage, but Meadows has been advertising and active on social media.

Meadows has also gotten some help from the Guilford County Republican Party, which sent out a mailer asking people to write-in Meadows and vote for At-large City Council candidate Katie Rossabi, District 4 City Council candidate Thurston Reeder and District 5 City Council candidate Tony Wilkins.

Because City Council elections are nonpartisan, it is unusual but not unprecedented for political parties to take an active role in the campaign.