After the first eight days of early voting, including the first of two voting Saturdays, more than 6,200 Bulloch County residents, or roughly 12% of the county’s active, registered voters, had voted early in-person or by absentee ballot.
The eighth day was the halfway point for early voting, with 14 weekdays plus two Saturdays on the schedule before the Tuesday, Nov. 3 traditional Election Day.
Last Saturday, when 412 Bulloch citizens voted in-person, appears to have set an all-time record for Saturday voting in Bulloch County, reported county Election Supervisor Shontay Jones. That was despite last Saturday also being the slowest single day for early voting so far toward the Nov. 3 general election. The busiest day was the previous Wednesday, Oct. 14, when 851 voters cast in-person ballots.
In addition to continuing to host Monday through Friday early voting, 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. from now until Friday, Oct. 30, the elections office in the County Annex, 113 North Main St., Suite 201, will host a second and final Saturday voting opportunity, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 24. (The annex is the only Saturday voting site, and there will be no voting on Oct. 31.)
GSU 3-day site
Meanwhile, one additional early voting site has opened this week, but for only three days. A room on the Georgia Southern University campus, in the Russell Union building at 85 Georgia Avenue, has been staffed for this purpose Tuesday-Thursday, Oct. 20-22, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
So that location was set to be available for just one more day as of this report, filed Wednesday evening.
Just 125 people had voted at the campus site Tuesday, Oct. 20, while 681 voted at the County Annex that day. But the combination of the two added up to 806 voters, pushing the daily total above 800 for the first time since Oct 14.
The campus voting site also serves another purpose, not apparent in the Bulloch County totals, Jones reported.
“It’s not the turnout we would like, but I think what is occurring – which is something that normally happens – is they’ve seen more people that need to get an absentee application from their home county,” she said.
In other words, the on-campus poll manager had told Jones that the number of university students being advised to seek an absentee ballot from a home county where they are still registered was approaching or surpassing the number showing up there able to vote in Bulloch.
Only Bulloch County-registered voters can actually vote in-person on the machines at the Russell Union site, which is open to students, faculty, staff and officially even to Bulloch voters who have nothing to do with the university.
Incidentally, the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is this Friday, Oct. 23. But absentee ballots voted and returned to the elections office in the appropriate county by the close of polls, 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3, can be counted.
Brooklet next week
New this season, Brooklet City Hall, 104 Church St. in Brooklet, will be staffed for in-person early voting in the county and state election in the final five days, Monday-Friday, Oct. 26-30, also from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
This new site is also open to any Bulloch County-registered voters.
State comparison
The online Election Data Hub operated by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office showed Bulloch County with a turnout thus far of 6,241 of its 51,761 recently active, currently registered voters, or 12.1%, as of 4:34 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21.
This participation included 5,846 in-person ballots cast, plus 395 absentee ballots returned and accepted out of 841 issued by mail to voters who requested them.
Meanwhile, statewide early and absentee voting turnout was running higher, 17.4%, with more than 1.3 million of Georgia’s over 7.5 million active, registered voters participating so far.