In-person voting off to a slow start

Early voting began for the 2020 General Primary Elections, Nonpartisan General Election and Special Elections, last Monday at the Houston County Board of Elections Office in Perry.

Deborah Presswood, Houston County Elections Supervisor, said total amount of ballots cast in-person from Monday through Friday morning at 9 a.m., is 346.

“It has been slower than usual for early voting, but we expected that due to the amount of absentee ballot requests as well as most taking caution of the virus,” Presswood said. “We, however, are taking all precautions to keep our staff and the people safe. There is only one entry and exit here at the Board of Elections Office; we are implementing the six feet social distancing and our staff is wearing masks and gloves.”

Presswood also shared that voters will be given a stylist to use when casting their ballots on the touch screen machines. After a person finishes casting their ballot, a staff member will then disinfect the machine and area.

The Board of Elections Office was closed for the Memorial Day holiday on May 25, but resumed operations for early voting on Tuesday, May 26. Presswood said that also on May 26, two other satellite locations will be open for early voting – the Houston Health Pavilion Conference Center located at 233 North Houston Road in Warner Robins, and the Roy H. “Sonny” Watson Health Sciences building at Central Georgia Technical College located at 71 Cohen Walker Drive in Warner Robins.

Early voting will run through June 5. Hours are set Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Presswood said they have scheduled one Saturday for early voting, which will be May 30 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Absentee ballots can also be requested up until the Friday before Election Day, but Presswood recommends voters request a ballot as soon as possible.

“We cannot control the mail system, so if you wait to long your ballot may not make it to our office in time to be counted on election night,” Presswood said. “We do, however, have two absentee ballot drop boxes; one inside the Jernigan St. entrance of the Government Building located at 801 Main Street in Perry, and the other in the lobby of the County Annex Building located at 200 Carl Vinson Parkway in Warner Robins.”

Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger’s office last month launched an absentee ballot initiative by mailing out applications to all registered voters in the state. The initiative was started due to promote safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presswood said more than 20,000 absentee ballots have been mailed out in Houston County so far, and that this is the most requests the county has seen.

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