Voting turnout continues to increase in Houston County

Early voting in Houston County began on Tuesday, October 13 with the Board of Elections Office in Perry being the first poll location to open. The first day was met with early arrivers and long lines that Board of Elections Assistant Supervisor Andy Holland admitted were unexpected. The final count at the end of that first day was 776, with some of those voters standing in line nearly three hours before the doors opened. With an end count of 820, the second day of early voting topped the first.

As of Monday, October 19, two additional locations—Houston Health Pavilion and Central Georgia Technical College, both in Warner Robins—opened, providing extra alternatives for voters who want to take advantage of the option to get their votes in prior to Election Day (November 3). According to Holland, even with three locations for voting now open, the high volumes continue.

“We still have just as many people and more that are showing up as we did when we first opened,” he verified. “We’re doing an average of about 1,000 people every day, and that’s at each location.”

That number does not include the numbers of Houston County citizens that are voting by way of absentee ballot. After the first two days of early voting, Holland indicated that 2020 is well on its way to being a record year, and he still believes that will be the case.

“At the beginning of early voting, we were at about 22,000,” he said of the number of absentee ballot applicants. “Now, I think we’re right at around 24,000 or so that have been requested.”

With so many votes expected to either be received by mail or hand delivered by absentee voters, it could make one wonder if there is any possibility that actual results will be known by Election Day night. But Holland says if all goes according to plans, the candidates and the community will know which bids were successful.

“We’re going to do our absolute best,” Holland assured. “We are opening and scanning the [absentee] ballots early as they come in. We started last week. Our plan is to have everything that in our office by election night, scanned by election night.”

It might be of importance for absentee voters to know that their votes, just like the votes of in-person citizens, must be in by Election Day in order for them to be counted. Ballots that are mailed in or hand delivered that are not received by 7 p.m. on November 3 will not be included in the tally.

Holland confirmed that the lines at voting locations are still lengthy and most likely will continue to be so up to the very end. Despite that, he was happy to report that there have been no delays due to issues or challenges arising the voting machines.

“It’s been going pretty smooth, much like last election,” he noted. “So although we’re still having large turnouts, the lines are moving much quicker than they were the first day of early voting,” he added. “Once we were open a few days, and then when Houston Pavilion and Central Georgia Tech were open a few days, things sped up quite a bit.”

Early voting will run through Friday, October 30, and polls will be open until 5 p.m. at all three Houston County voting locations.

HHJ News