Bulloch County residents began lining up outside the Bulloch County Elections Office at 7:30 Tuesday morning to cast their ballots in early voting for the Nov. 5 general election.
When the doors opened at 8 a.m., election officials said the initial rush of about 150 people went through smoothly and by 9:30 a.m. there was a short, but steady line, which kept up all day.
By the end of the day, 1,328 Bulloch voters had cast ballots, according to Bulloch County Election Supervisor Shontay Jones. In 2020, the last presidential election, 574 Bulloch voters cast ballots on the first day.
"Today was awesome," Jones said in an email. "We were seeing voters pull in the parking lot as early as 6:45 a.m. and lining up in the building at 7:30 until we opened the polls at 8. It has been a steady flow all day. The majority were very nice and appreciative for our services."
Also, Jones said her office had already mailed out 1,300 absentee ballots, and received 110 back to be counted.
Meanwhile, early voters around the state shattered the first-day record of 136,000 votes cast in 2020.
Within six hours of polls opening Tuesday, Georgia had posted record turnout for the first day of early voting. Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state's office, said that more than 154,000 people had voted by 1 p.m. Tuesday, beating the 136,000 from 2020. By 4 p.m., Sterling said, close to 252,000 people had been to the polls.
Along with the presidential race at the top of the ballot, there are local county commission races, a city council race and one congressional and one state legislature race. There are three state constitution amendment questions on the ballot, as well.
Early voting is available at the Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration office in the County Annex, 113 North Main St., Suite 201, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., through Friday, Oct. 18, and then Monday through Friday, Oct. 21-25 and Oct. 28-Nov. 1.
Also, the County Annex will be the only place to vote on the two Saturdays, Oct. 19 and Oct. 26, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Officials say the busiest times at the Annex are first thing in the morning, a mid-afternoon rush at 2 p.m. and right before 5 p.m.
Additionally, three days of early voting for Bulloch County registered voters will be held in the Russell Union, 85 Georgia Ave., on the Georgia Southern University campus, Tuesday through Thursday, Oct. 22-24. Voting hours there will be 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
For the final five weekdays of early voting there will be another voting location, in addition to the County Annex. The new final-week early voting site will be Georgia Southern's Entrepreneurship Innovation Incubator at 64 East Main St. in downtown Statesboro. It will be open for early voting only Monday through Friday, Oct. 28-Nov. 1, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.