The official date of Georgia’s general election is Tuesday, Nov. 8. But three weeks of opportunities to vote early begin Monday and will include two Saturdays. Meanwhile, absentee voting by mail has already begun.
Throughout Georgia, the ballot includes a race of national significance for the U.S. Senate, as well as contests for governor and seven other statewide offices, plus decisions on two state constitutional amendments and two state referendums. Every voter in Bulloch County can also help decide two local sales tax referendums and one liquor store referendum and one of two county commissioner races.
Early voting schedule
The Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration suite in the County Annex will be the one location in the county open for early voting the entire 17 days. But two other early voting locations, including one on the Georgia Southern University campus, will open for a few select days.
Monday through Friday, Oct. 17-21, Oct. 24-28 and Oct. 31-Nov. 4, the Elections and Registration office,
113 N. Main St., Suite 201, will host early voting
8 a.m.-5 p.m. The same location, and only this location, will be open for Saturday voting, 9 a.m.-
5 p.m. Oct. 22 and Oct. 29 only. Notice that Saturday voting opens one hour later than weekday early voting.
On the Georgia Southern campus, Room 1042 at the Russell Union building, 85 Georgia Avenue, will open for early voters three days only, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 25-27. Like the other locations, it is available to voters from throughout the county, although offered for the convenience of those on or near campus.
Finally, the Honey Bowen Building, 1 Max Lockwood Drive, Statesboro, will open for advance voters for five days, 8 a.m-5 p.m., Monday through Friday, Oct.31-Nov. 4 only.
Bulloch County Election Supervisor Shontay Jones reminds voters that a driver’s license, state-issued identification card or other accepted form of photo ID is required to vote.
Since boundaries of state representative and county commission districts were updated this year based on the 2020 census, she recommends that voters check their voter registration and district information online by visiting the statewide My Voter Page, https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/ .
Absentee ballots
Meanwhile, no-excuse paper absentee ballots will remain available for request until Oct. 28, to be mailed to Bulloch County voters at addresses outside the county or at their address of registration inside the county.
The first day the local elections staff could mail these ballots out was Tuesday, Oct. 11. By early afternoon Friday, 1,004 paper ballots had been mailed to requesting Bulloch County voters. Only a few had been returned by Friday, Jones said.
Votes by absentee ballot can be counted if the ballots are returned by the 7 p.m. close of polls on Nov. 8. They may be returned to the election office staff or to a drop box inside the office lobby, available only during early voting hours. Georgia law now prohibits outdoor ballot drop boxes.
Oct. 11 was also the deadline for voter registration, and as of Friday the county had 50,030 total registered voters, Jones reported. This count could rise later some from information returned to the county by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office for voters who registered online.
A number of people came to the annex this week wanting to vote early, but it was too early, Jones noted.
“I’m just hoping that those people that have been coming in this week to vote early will come back next week, and if so, I think we’ll have a pretty good start to early voting and hopefully have a better turnout than we did in May and June,” she said.