As voting in the 2024 election enters the final week, extended hours have been announced for Gilmer County early voting.
Gilmer County Chief Registrar Tammy Watkins said voting will run from 7:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. through Friday, Nov. 1.
“We just wanted to give everyone the opportunity to vote,” Watkins said.
The decision was made because some voters attempted to come by and vote before and after work. Opening earlier and closing later gave these voters an opportunity to cast their ballots. Between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., 19 people took advantage of the early hours to vote.
As of 4:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 28, a total of 9,780 out of 26,222 registered voters had cast their votes in Gilmer County. This amounts to 37 percent of voters having cast ballots with one week remaining in early voting.
“It is really going great for us,” said Watkins. “We are moving them in and out really fast. People are very complimentary. It is a steady flow.”
In the state of Georgia, 2.9 million had turned out to vote as of Monday at 12:30 p.m. breaking the 40 percent mark of all voters, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“Georgia voters know we’ve made it easy to cast a ballot. It’s really that simple,” said Raffensperger.
“Over the past four years, we’ve worked tirelessly to prepare for this election by adding Early Voting days and investing in infrastructure, only to be rewarded with the lies of Jim Crow 2.0 and a missed All-Star Game. We’re battled tested and ready, despite the critics.”
On day 15 of early voting in previous years, 1,199,424 (2018), 1,979,963 (2020) and 1,640,652 (2022) voters had turned out for in-person Early Voting, according to a release from Raffensperger’s office.