Georgia election officials are bracing for more record turnout as voters go to the polls on Election Day Tuesday. Statewide, 3.9 million early and absentee voters have already cast ballots; that’s 1.5 million more than were cast before Election Day in 2016, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.
Sixty percent of Habersham County’s voters have already voted.
Figures released by Habersham County Election Supervisor Laurel Ellison show that 17,059 of Habersham’s 28,264 active registered voters have cast ballots. Of those, 12,981 voted in person during early and Saturday voting.
Hall County is right behind Habersham in its current turnout percentage. Figures released Monday show 58% of Hall’s 128,228 registered voters have cast ballots ahead of Tuesday’s election.
“The elections process has run smoothly overall thus far thanks to the dedication of staff and poll workers,” says Hall County Elections Director Lori Wurtz.
White County reports a slightly smaller early and absentee voter turnout than in Habersham and Hall, but still, more than half of the county’s 20,267 active registered voters have voted.
“We’ve got close to ten thousand ballots in hand right now,” White County Election Superintendent Garrison Baker told local media Friday. “We have more votes in hand now than we have in all of the elections that I have ever conducted except one [and] that was in 2016 when we had 11,900 votes cast.”
Even with record-breaking early and absentee voter turnout, election officials are still preparing for a big election day.
“The estimates we’ve been told to prepare for could be 75 to 80 percent turnout and, if that’s the case, we could see seven thousand ballots cast [in White County] on election day,” says Garrison. Wurtz says, “We anticipate a large turnout on Tuesday.”
All voting precincts in all 159 counties in the state will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on November 3. Voters must vote at their assigned precincts. Some precincts, such as the one in Demorest, may have moved.
CLICK HERE for HABERSHAM VOTING PRECINCTS
Voters are encouraged to check their precinct assignments and review sample ballots at mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do.
This article has been updated to include comments from Lori Wurtz
