More than 5 percent of Fayette County's registered voters may end up

casting ballots this week before the polls even open for Tuesday's general

election.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,000 people a day had taken advantage

of advanced voting at the county Elections Office in the Stonewall Village

Administration Complex in Fayetteville.

The large turnout surprised county election officials, and seems to back

up predictions that this year's presidential race would see record numbers

of voters go to the polls.

Fayette County has more than 67,000 registered voters, according to election

supervisor Carolyn Combs. More than 85 percent of Fayette's voters cast

a ballot in the 2000 election.

If just 5,000 people end up voting by the end of the day Friday, that will

mean 7 percent of registered voters took advantage of the advanced voting

process.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Cathy Cox predicted that 72 percent

of Georgia's active registered voters, or approximately 3.05 million,

will participate in Tuesday's election.

Cox said her prediction was based on historical trends, information from

county registrars concerning absentee ballot requests, advance voting activity

and the surge of new registrations added to the rolls over the last several

months.

There are currently 4,248,802 citizens on Georgia's active voter roll

eligible to vote in this election. Nearly 491,000 new registrations have

been added to the rolls in the last 12 months alone.

Cox's prediction would, on a percentage basis, nearly equal the recent

high water mark for General Election turnout - the 1992 presidential

election, when 73.05 percent of Georgia registrants cast ballots. It would

also mark the first Georgia election in which more than three million voters

participated.

"Voter registrars, county election officials, candidates, pollsters

and campaigns are all seeing the same indicators - public interest in this

year's election is exceptionally high and we can anticipate a very heavy

turnout next Tuesday," said Cox, who serves as the state's chief

elections official. "The very large numbers of advance voters yesterday - with

several counties processing more voters in one day than they did the entire

week prior to the July Primary - underscores just how interested Georgians

are in this election."

Both Cox and local election officials warned that with the high voter interest,

waits to cast ballots at polling places could be long on Tuesday.

Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday at Fayette's 36 precincts, and close at

7 p.m. But any voters who are in line by 7 p.m. will be allowed to cast a

ballot, officials said.

To assist county election officials in coping with the surge of voters this

November, earlier this year the Secretary of State's office used federal

funds to purchase nearly 1,000 additional touch screen terminals for distribution

to all 159 Georgia counties. Some counties received as many as 12 additional

units. Approximately 24,500 touch screen terminals are deployed statewide.

This will be the fifth major statewide election using the electronic machines,

which were first used in the 2002 General Election.

In addition to the presidential race, choices on next Tuesday's ballot

include the U. S. Senate seat to replace Senator Zell Miller, one Public

Service Commission seat, all 13 Congressional seats, all House and Senate

seats in the Georgia General Assembly, a statewide race for a seat on the

Court of Appeals and two proposed amendments to the Georgia Constitution.

Locally, voters will decide on a $65 million bond referendum to fund school

construction, as well as a five-year Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax

to pay for road improvements.

Additionally, a new mayor will be elected in Tyrone, where incumbent Sheryl

Lee faces challenger Grace Caldwell.