The final day of early voting in Tuesday’s municipal and county elections ended at 5 p.m. Friday with 150 voters making it to the Barrow County Board of Elections & Registration to cast their ballots in person.
A total of 993 people took advantage of three weeks of early voting in advance of the Nov. 8 election. Voting in person were 889 people. County voters also returned 63 absentee ballots and city voters 41. There are additional absentee ballots still in the hands of city and county voters, and if they return them by the deadline of 7 p.m. Tuesday, the final early voting tally could exceed 1,000.
Winder residents cast 517 early votes with 477 voting in person and 40 absentee. They also voted early in the city's hotly contested elections, which could portend a record turnout for Tuesday. Just 1,286 Winder voters participated in the 2007 mayoral election, and that was considered a large turnout for a local municipal election.
In Auburn’s special election, which is on Sunday alcohol sales by the package, 17 residents voted early at the county elections office and one voted absentee. In Bethlehem’s contested council race, five residents voted early.
Those numbers mean that 453 residents of unincorporated Barrow County voted early in the county special election. They included 390 people who voted in person and 63 who voted absentee.
The total number of active and inactive registered voters in the county is 38,018, according to interim elections supervisor Monica Franklin.
On Tuesday, the county and municipal polling places will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Barrow County residents Mary Thrasher, right, and John Weatherly, left, are two early voters who took to the polls before Friday at 5 p.m. in the county annex building.
DuWayne