Early Voting Set for Saturday

Voters in Stephens County have a special opportunity this weekend to vote early in this month’s primary and non-partisan election.

Stephens County Registrar Bill Cochran said early voting will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Stephens County Registrar’s Office, located in the Stephens County Courthouse Annex on Tugalo Street in downtown Toccoa.

“Anyone that has trouble getting to the early voting polls during the week, here is a perfect opportunity to avoid the lines on Election Day and get up here and vote on Saturday,” said Cochran.

Early voting started on Monday, May 2 and Cochran said it has gone well so far without any problems.

He said that the early voting polls in Stephens County have been among the busiest in the state this month.

“We expect to go well over 1300 for early voting,” said Cochran on Thursday afternoon. “That ranks us 30th out of 159 counties in the state, so based on our size we are having an incredible turnout.”

After Saturday, there is still one more week to vote early for the May 24 election.

Early voting concludes on Friday, May 20.

Cochran said the high turnout is expected to continue throughout early voting and on Election Day also.

“This is a long ballot,” said Cochran. “It takes a couple minutes to go through and vote. Please come up, vote early, avoid the lines on the 24th. If you know who you are going to vote for, now is the perfect time to vote.”

Voters will need a picture ID and will also need to pick a ballot style to vote, whether it be Republican, Democrat, or non-partisan.

Local contested primary races including Stephens County Commission Post Two, Stephens County Board of Education At-Large and District 3, Post 2, Sheriff, 50th District State Senate, Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney, and 9th District U.S. House of Representatives, all appear only on the Republican ballot.

The non-partisan Chief Magistrate election appears on all ballots.

The only contested primary race on the Democratic ballot in Stephens County is the U.S. Senate primary.

Cochran reminded voters that choosing a particular ballot style now does not lock you into that party in November, but it does lock you to that party if there is a run-off this summer as a result of this month’s election.

Anyone with voting-related questions should call the Stephens County Registrar’s Office at 706-886-8954 or go to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website at www.sos.ga.gov.