Oil Patch Voter Turnout | Video

Alex Hagan | 6/12/2012

Western North Dakota`s population boom had county auditors preparing for a possible election boom as well. In Dickinson, the Stark County Auditors Office was prepared for any sudden increase in voters.

"The last Presidential, there was like 12,000 ballots ordered, we increased it to 18,000, not sure what kind of turnout we were going to have," said Stark County Auditor Kay Haag.

Election judges say there was an increase in traffic at the polls but not a significant increase.

"We kind of compared numbers on the early voting, and I believe the last presidential we had 800 and we have a thousand this year," Haag said.

Judges who have worked previous elections haven`t seen many new faces casting their ballots.

"Most of the people I have seen coming through today, have been very familiar faces. In other words people who have voted in Dickinson in the past. We have not seen a lot of strangers to this point," said election judge Jackie Miller.

New workers affiliated with the boom didn`t seem to have much interest in voting.

"I`m not really from here and what you guys are voting on has really no impact on me whatsoever," said concrete superintendent Wayne Antrim.

Workers coming from out of state do not know much about political issues in North Dakota as well.

"Most people that come from out of state that we meet, they don`t really care what`s going on except where the money`s coming from," said contractor Shane Curtis.

Even with an increase in voter turnout, the oil boom seems to have made no real impact on election day.

There was some voter confusion, The Badlands Activity Center was a new polling place, and many voters were not aware of that.

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