A majority of Fayette County voters have already cast their ballots during early voting — upwards of 64% — according to the county’s Election Board online report.
As of Tuesday, Nov. 5 — national voting day across the country — a total of 58,282 persons had cast ballots. Fayette had 89,850 registered voters as of this past June 18 primary elections.
In addition, elections office will be tabulating at least 3,819 absentee ballots that had been returned as of this past Friday, Nov. 1, according to the election board’s website.
A total of 5,333 absentee ballots had been mailed out, and up to 1,514 of them arriving after this past Friday will be counted on voting day, Nov. 5.
The busiest advance voting spot was the Peachtree City Library with 20,709 ballots cast, followed closely by the Fayette Library in Fayetteville, where 19,276 people voted early. In third place was Tyrone with 9,782 ballots cast, and in last place was the elections board office — 175 Johnson Ave., Suite B, Fayetteville — where 8,515 voters cast ballots.
Heaviest voting days were the first four days of early voting — Oct. 15 through Oct.18 — with Friday, Oct. 18 (4,694 votes cast) the overall leader. One other day surpassed 4,000 voters lined up — Monday, Oct. 21. The final day to vote early — Friday, Nov. 1 — was the fifth busiest with 3,933 voters lined up at the four polling sites.
The election office gave notice that it intended under Georgia law to “process” absentee ballots that had been returned to the office beginning Oct. 28 and continuing through Nov. 5. Presumably, that means getting the mailed-in ballots ready for counting. The actual counting of absentee ballots starts at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6, one hour before official poll closing.
The Citizen will have the most recent vote counts tonight — from Fayette County Commission and Fayette Board of Education all the way up to District 3 and District 6 U.S. House of Representatives and the race for president of the United States.
