Georgia’s election season kicks off on Tuesday with the opening of early voting locations

ALBANY – Early voting has started in some states already, and for Georgians the chance to make their voices heard starts Tuesday, when polling places will open for three weeks in the Peach State ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Election supervisors are expecting a busy three weeks and a big turnout for the general election, which has the hotly contested presidential race on the ballot.

“I am hoping for a huge turnout,” Lee County Elections Supervisor Veronica Johnson said. “We would like to have the number we had for the election in 2020 when we had over 10,000.

“We’ve been trying to get people out to vote early.”

With Monday a state holiday for Columbus Day, the polls in Dougherty County will open at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. The Albany Civic Center site will be open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. each weekday through the early voting period, which ends on Nov. 1.

Two state-mandated Saturday voting days will be held from 9 a.m-7 p.m. on Nov. 17 and Nov. 24.

Lee County plans to spice things up with two pop-up voting opportunities on the east and west ends of the county. The polls will be open from 2 p.m.-7 p.m. at the Bindery at Oakland Library on Oct. 21 and 22, and the same hours on Oct. 23 and 24 at the Redbone Fire Station.

Johnson said she hopes the extended hours will make voting more convenient for residents.

“We’re going to try to catch people after school, after work and hopefully after dinner,” she said.

Early voting also makes it easier on election workers as it helps lessen the massive crunch of voters coming out on the day of the election.

“I can’t imagine what election day would be like if we didn’t have early voting,” Johnson said. “We want our people voting early so our workers aren’t overwhelmed on Election Day. It helps us tremendously with not being overrun and being adequately staffed on election day.”

During the three weeks of early voting, which runs from Oct. 15 through Nov. 1, Lee County’s downtown office will be open from 8:15 a.m.-5 p.m. each weekday. The Saturday early voting hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Oct. 19 and Oct. 26.

Voters in all Georgia counties can find the dates and locations for early voting by visiting https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/advanced-voting-location-information.

On Monday, Dougherty County Elections Supervisor Ginger Nickerson answered questions that had been posed by voters the previous week during a Dougherty County Commission meeting.

Several voters told commissioners that when they checked their state My Voter Page, it did not reflect that they had voted in prior elections in which they had cast ballots.

The lack of updated information on that website, hosted by the Georgia Secretary of State, does not indicate that those votes were not counted, Nickerson said.

“Those are two separate systems,” she said. “They are not connected.”

Poll workers encourage voters to watch the scanner when they insert completed paper ballots to ensure that it indicates the ballot count increasing by one as it is scanned, she said.

Sample ballots are available at polling places, but voters can get a head start on making their decisions by visiting the My Voter Page at https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/. The site gives voters specific sample ballots for races in which they are eligible to cast ballots as well as the location of polling places for early voting and election day.

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
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