Dougherty Elections Board OKs Sunday vote

ALBANY — The Dougherty County Board of Registration and Elections voted unanimously Wednesday to allow a Sunday voting period from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 30.

The Sunday vote would follow a state-mandated Saturday voting period, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 29. Both weekend voting sessions will be conducted at the Riverfront Resource Center’s Candy Room at 125 Pine Ave.

“My recommendation is that we hold the Sunday vote on Oct. 30, the day after the state-mandated Saturday vote,” Elections Supervisor Ginger Nickerson said. “That would allow for a full weekend of voting in Dougherty County.”

After a brief discussion period, board member Charles Lamb made a motion to approve Nickerson’s recommendation.

“I thought it would have been a good idea to move forward with the vote at our last meeting,” Lamb, an attorney, said. “So I would like to make a motion that the county, because of budget issues, hold a single Sunday voting day on Oct. 30, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.”

His motion was seconded by board member Ernest Davis and unanimously approved by the board.

In the discussion that preceded the vote, board members generally expressed their support of the proposal, which the state allows individual counties to determine.

“I think this is a good idea, especially since (the Sunday voting day) is backing up the Saturday vote,” Davis said. “For me, that works.”

Added board member Benny Hand: “Any opportunity we can give our citizens to vote, I think we should do (so).”

Nickerson noted that the county had approved a similar Sunday voting period in 2014, and that it had been well-attended. Asked by Board Chairman Walter Blankenship if there was talk of a statewide move to take the Sunday vote out of the separate counties’ hands and make it mandatory, the elections supervisor said only “five or six” counties had indicated they were interested in such action when polled.

“I believe during the last county-determined Sunday voting day in 2014, there were only about 10 counties that voted to approve it,” Nickerson said.

The elections supervisor also told the board during her office activity report that technicians had completed testing of some 225 county touch-screen voting machines Sept. 6-8.

“We know that the units we have in the county are ready to be utilized starting Oct. 17 (when early voting for the Nov. 8 general election begins),” Nickerson said.