First Week of Early Voting Brings Record Numbers

The polls officially opened for voters to begin casting their votes for the General Election last week, as local counties saw a record high number of voters cast their ballots.

“We’ve had record-breaking days almost every day,” Toombs County Election Superintendent Carey Alligood emphasized.

According to Alligood, a total of 2,572 voters cast their ballots last week – totaling a turnout of 14.4% of the county’s total voter population. In addition to this, 472 absentee ballots have been issued to voters and a total of 127 absentee ballots have been returned.

Alligood asked that the public remain patient throughout the continued from page

high early voter turnout, as she stated that the longest recorded wait time for a voter is 12 minutes.

Montgomery County is seeing similar high numbers, as 742 people had casted their ballot as of 2:30 p.m. on Monday, October 21 – totaling 12.6% of the voter population. Around 300 absentee ballots have been issued to county voters, and so far, around 50 of the absentee ballots have been returned.

“This is the biggest turnout that we have had for early voting since 2020 – in that one, we early voted 1,900 people, but we expect to exceed that record this election,” Election Assistant Bobbie Carpenter remarked. She added that lines were moving quickly for early voters, as there have been no waits longer than a single minute.

This is the last election which Treutlen County Magistrate/Probate Judge Tiffany McLendon will oversee, but t has been memorable, as voters in Treutlen County have came out consistently to cast their ballots. “We are averaging around 150 voters per day – that is unheard of in a county as small as ours,” she emphasized. “After the hurricane, we were unsure how many people would vote during early voting because of still recovering from the damage, but it has not slowed the public down one bit.”

According to McLendon, 657 voters had cast their ballots as of 9:40 a.m. on Monday, October 21, which totals a 7% turnout of the county’s voting population. She stated that 98 absentee ballots have been requested and 36 of those ballots have been returned.

As of 2:30 p.m. on Monday, October 21, Wheeler County had 466 voters cast their ballots early, totaling a 13.6% turnout of the total voter population. Wheeler County Election Superintendent stated that 85 absentee ballots had been issued to the public, and 35 of those ballots had been submitted.

‘We’ve had a really good turnout for our small county,” Mercer emphasized. “It’s been a steady flow of people, and we are seeing 70-90 voters per day.”

Early voting is open within each county from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 26. The last day to vote early will be on November 1. Early voting locations include: Montgomery County – Montgomery County Government Annex (205 S. Richardson St. in Mount Vernon; Toombs County – Toombs County Courthouse (100 Courthouse Sq. in Lyons); Treutlen County – Treutlen County Annex (650 Second St. in Soperton), and Wheeler County – Wheeler County Community Service Center (16 W. Forest Ave. in Alamo).