Gilmer elections breaks 1,000 in early voting

ELLIJAY, Ga. – A little over a week has passed since the beginning of early voting in Gilmer County. The Election have already seen its first of two Saturdays available for early voting as well.

In this time, Gilmer has broken past the 1,000 voters mark. While not nearly a comparison to the 2020 presidential election in November when early voting saw 470 on the first day alone, Chief Registrar and Elections Manager Tammy Watkins said that numbers are up from the 2018 Primaries as the last major non-presidential election year.

The totals for this year’s election primaries as of Tuesday, May 10, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. were 1,191 early voters who voted in-person at the courthouse and 258 mail-in ballots requested. Those numbers included the 75 voters who voted on the first Saturday for early voting.

The election has also received 108 of its requested mail-in ballots back. This week also sees a major deadline for the election as Friday, May 13, 2022, is the last day citizens can request mail-in ballots for absentee voting. Though the office will accept ballots back after that date, they will not be mailing those requested ballots unless they are requested by then.

This Saturday, May 14, 2022, will also be the last Saturday for in-person Early Voting. Opening at 9 a.m. citizens will have until 5 p.m. to vote. After that, early voting will only be open one more week, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., until May 20, 2022.

Watkins stated that much of the process has been uneventful. A definite positive for Gilmer after many Georgia County’s experienced so many issues in the 2020 election. However, Gilmer has been praised in the last two years from local and state officials as one of the best run elections for that cycle. This included no issues on the recounts or audits of that election.