Nearly 30% voter turnout so far
♦ Early voting in the June 9 primary runs through Friday in Floyd County.
With Georgia’s primary election less than a week away, Rome and Floyd County leaders have learned that more than 11,000 local votes have already been cast.
County Manager Jamie Mccord told members of a Joint Services Committee that more than 9,500 absentee ballots had already been returned to the local office and a little more than 2,000 residents had participated in early voting.
“That’s probably a little higher than a lot of people had estimated,” Mccord said.
Through Monday, more than 18,100 Floyd County voters had requested an absentee ballot, so the numbers show that a little more than half of those ballots had been cast.
Chief Elections Clerk Robert
Brady said Wednesday that, all things considered, 27.73% of the registered voters in
Rome and Floyd County had already cast ballots.
Brady is not expecting much of a physical turnout at the polls Tuesday and is holding to his projection of a turnout in the range of 32%.
“That’s not wonderful, but it doesn’t stink,” Brady said.
In-person early voting runs through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Rome Civic Center.
All precincts will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on election day.
At this point there is still only one change in the poll locations for Tuesday. The Barkers precinct, which used to vote at the Renaissance Marquis, cannot vote there because of the COVID-19 crisis. Those voters will cast ballots slightly north on U.S. 27, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post that serves as the Vanns Valley precinct.
Voters still have time to mail in their ballot, or they can be returned through a couple of drop boxes — one located at the County Administration building at 12 E. Fourth Ave., the other at the Rome-floyd County Library, 205 Riverside Parkway.
Brady said the most frequent question he’s getting relates to the drop boxes.
“They want to know how secure this is,” Brady said. “They are picked up by a team of two every 24 hours.”
The boxes are under video surveillance 24 hours a day.
“The ballot boxes are 100% safe,” Brady said.
Each box has two locks that have to be opened separately with unique keys.
It is still not clear if the boxes will be used for what would appear to be inevitable run-offs in several races.
Voters can check on the status of their absentee ballot on the Georgia My Voter website. After logging in, scroll to the link that reads “Check absentee ballot status.”
People who feel more comfortable voting in person can simply surrender their absentee ballot at the polls when they show up to vote.
“If you applied for an absentee ballot and you choose not to vote it, then there is an affidavit, some paperwork you have to file,” Brady said. “That takes a minute or two.”
Walter Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, said that inperson voting will go a little slower this year because of all the health-related issues such as sanitizing the equipment between voters.
Jones said more than 976,000 Georgians statewide had voted through Wednesday, including more than 783,000 who took advantage of the opportunity to vote absentee.