At the end of an election cycle votes cast in Southport always arrive at exactly the same spot.

It doesn't matter if the votes were cast for a president, a state senator or a water systems merger, all the votes end up in a battered but well-cared for wooden ballot box in the Southport Town Hall.

For as long as Ronald Orchard of the Hendricks Hill Museum in Southport can remember, voters in Southport have confided their votes in the small wooden box at the end of a table.

Before the election the box is hauled out, inspected and then re-inspected. A heavy padlock is then clicked into place and official tape is wound around the lock.

As of 2:45 p.m. Tuesday the ballot box had devoured more than 250 votes. Adding in the more-than 100 absentee ballots, Southport had surpassed the half-way mark of the towns' 595 registered voters.

“There's always a good turnout in Southport,” Orchard said.

That turnout, which was apparent during a public hearing about the water district merger on October 10 when more than 60 people packed the Southport Town Hall, was again on display on Tuesday.

Town clerk Donna Climo said that even for Southport the turnout was greater than previous elections.

“At 8 a.m. we did have people waiting outside to vote,” she said. “I would say there were 10 or 12 people waiting to vote. We had all the booths filled and a couple of people waiting in line.”

Climo said she expected an uptick after 4:30 p.m. when voters got home from work, but didn't anticipate a late surge before the polls closed at 8 p.m.