Gilmer elections breaks 1,000 in early voting
Election May 10, 2022
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.
Early voting sees record numbers in absentee ballots in Gilmer
News June 8, 2020
GILMER COUNTY, Ga. – A massive turnout has come for the twin cities and surrounding area as Gilmer’s Voter Registration Office is reporting record numbers in absentee voting.
A total of 1,482 voters stopped by the office during the early voting for the primaries elections staking their votes on local, state, and national offices. Registrar Sherri Jones said that Friday, June 5, 2020, the final day of early voting,was their busiest day of the entire cycle with 161 voters casting their ballots on that day. Yet, that number pales in comparison to another.
Jones said that the state mailed absentee applications to active voters this year in response to the Coronavirus outbreak. Of those applications, a record-breaking 6,117 ballots were requested. Jones said the office has been checking and making signature comparisons and following verification processes. Returning absentee ballots have piled up as they work through the response before tomorrow’s election day.
In fact, they still have not fully processed them all, Jones did confirm, however, that as of 3:00 p.m. on Monday, June 8, 2020, over 4,141 absentee ballots had been received and processed. This does not count the ballots that are still coming in before the deadline and in processing.
As the final hours count down and tomorrow dawns on election day, absentee’s could make up the largest majority of votes counted against individual precincts.
For comparison, the registrar’s office confirmed that the November General Election in 2016, the presidential election, saw the office mailing 725 absentee ballots and receiving 660 ballots in.
In the November General Election of 2018, the office mailed 614 absentee ballots out and received 550 ballots in.
Gilmer has seen large swings in elections in recent years from early voting, but this could be the first time in years, if ever, that the largest swing comes from absentee ballots.