As of noon Monday, more than 8,000 Fayette County residents have cast their ballots for the upcoming November general election. That’s just under 10 percent of the total eligible voters — 81,792 — according to the Fayette County Elections Office.
Voting has been such a popular option in downtown Fayetteville at the county elections headquarters that the line stretches outside the office and down several doors at the county’s administrative complex on the second floor.
There are three locations open for voting Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and they will also be open this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Early voting is being offered at the county elections headquarters in downtown Fayetteville, at the library in Peachtree City and at Town Hall in Tyrone.
Voters are not required to live in any of those towns and thus may cast their in-person ballot at any of the three locations, elections officials have said. If you wait until election day Nov. 6, however, you will have to visit your polling location between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The last day to vote “early” in person is Friday, Nov. 2, as elections officials need the following Monday to prepare for election day on Tuesday.
Through noon Monday, nearly 4,100 people had voted in Fayetteville, compared with 3,195 in Peachtree City and 1,202 in Tyrone.
Although the lines have not been incredibly long, on several occasions the wait has stretched to a half hour or more, so voters should pad their schedules with a little extra time. To speed up the early voting process this year, elections workers are using a license/ID scanner that allows voters to skip filling out their request for ballot form in lieu of a printout they will sign instead.
Heavy turnout is expected due to the highly contested presidential election.
Fayette voters will also be asked to pick a school board member for Post 2, determine the fate of a proposed continuance to the 1 percent educational sales tax (E-SPLOST) for Fayette County public schools and also vote on a change to the state constitution that would give a new state agency — appointed by the governor, speaker of the house and president of the senate — the power to authorize applications for state funded charter schools.
If you have any questions about the location of your precinct or which district you’re in for a given race, you can find the answers at www.sos.georgia.gov/mvp. By logging in with your personal information, you can access that data along with a sample ballot.
