After two five-day weeks and two Saturdays of in-person early voting, 8,103 Bulloch County residents, or 18% of the county’s 44,937 “active” registered voters, had voted in advance of the Nov. 8 general election, also including those who returned absentee ballots.

“It’s been fairly consistent here with the amount of people coming in,”  said  Bulloch County Election Supervisor Shontay Jones. “We’re seeing close to 600 probably, on average, every day.”

In-person early voting early voting continues, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday of this week, with two locations open: the Board of Elections and Registration office at the County Annex, 113 N. Main St., Suite 201, and now, for this week only: the Honey Bowen Building, 1 Max Lockwood Drive at Fair Road in Memorial Park, Statesboro.

But early voting concludes statewide at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, and there will be no voting this Saturday. Then Bulloch’s 16 precinct-assigned Election Day polling places will open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. the following Tuesday.

Statewide, early voting continued at a record pace through last week, especially in comparison to the last general election with a governor’s race on the ballot, in fall 2018, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office reported Monday. From the first day of early voting through last weekend, 1,505,447 voters had shown up at the polls.

The Bulloch County totals given above are for the first two weeks of early voting, from Oct. 17 through Saturday, Oct. 29. For the first week, the County Annex location was the only one open.

Campus turnout

But it was joined for three days last week only, Tuesday through Thursday, by a room in the Russell Union building on the Georgia Southern University campus. In those three days, 501 voters cast in-person electronic ballots at the Russell Union, according to reports posted by Jones’ staff.

The running total of in-person early voters at the County Annex, including the first 10 days of Monday-Friday voting and the two Saturdays, was 6,724. So, together, those two locations recorded ballots from 7,225 voters through last Saturday.

Absentee returns

Meanwhile the voting office had accepted as valid 878 mailed-out, paper absentee ballots returned by voters. So the combined total, as of the close of business Saturday evening, was 8,103 voters. Bulloch has 50,043 active and inactive registered voters as of the current election, which would make the turnout to this point 16.2%, but the state actually uses the “active” number for its turnout reports, Jones said.

Saturday voting, held only at the annex, accounted for 279 in-person early voters on Oct. 22 and 356 on Oct. 29. So, as in past elections, the Saturdays were among the lowest days for early voting participation, but this year there was a second Saturday added, as mandated by Georgia Senate Bill 202 in 2021.

But that same new law limited the days for requesting mailed-out paper absentee ballots. Last Friday, Oct. 28 was the deadline, and further requests cannot be accepted. But absentee ballots already issued will be counted if returned to the election office by the close of polls, 7 p.m. on Nov. 8.

Bulloch County has 5,106 registered but currently inactive voters on its rolls. They are still registered and eligible to vote but either have not voted in the last two election cycles or have had official election correspondence returned from their address of record and had not updated their registration.