Early voting draws 1,000

ALBANY — With early voting now over for the 2012 Presidential Preference Primary, elections, officials say that more than 700 people voted early in-person while another 300 requested absentee ballots to be mailed out.

This year, voters had 21 total days of early voting, including the first-ever statewide Saturday voting, to cast ballots for their preference in the presidential primaries.

Voting is now closed until Tuesday when all precincts around the county will open at 7 a.m., elections officials say.

The elections office downtown, where early voting was held, will be open for business but will not be a voting site Tuesday. No voting will be conducted today.

Heading into “Super Tuesday,” the day in which 10 states will decide which presidential contenders get their delegates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has a lead over former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

After wins in Wyoming, Arizona and his home state of Michigan, Romney leads the GOP field with 182 delegates.

Santorum is second with 79 delegates, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia at 39. Rounding out the list of viable GOP contenders is U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who has 38 delegates.

President Obama has no opposition and is the only name that will appear on Democratic ballots in Georgia on Tuesday.

In order to win the Republican presidential nomination, a candidate must get the nod from 1,144 delegates.

In all, the 10 Super Tuesday states will have 437 GOP delegates up for grabs. Nearly half of those — 200 delegates — will come from the three biggest states involved in Tuesday’s voting — Georgia (76), Ohio (66) and Tennessee (58).

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office reported Friday that more than 140,000 ballots had been cast early statewide in Georgia. Of those, 116,800 were cast in person and 24,246 were mail-out ballots that were requested.

The state is particularly important to Gingrich, who once represented its 6th Congressional District. He has said that Georgia’s delegates are crucial to the future of his campaign, but stopped short of saying a loss here would force him out of the contest.