Brantley Countians are following fellow citizens across the state and nation in getting out to cast their vote in the General Election.
As of 4 p.m., Monday, October 21, casting a ballot is at an all-time high. Early in-person voting across the state is at 1,504,332, absentees received is 88,663 with a total of 1,592,995 ballots in.
Over 10 million ballots have already been cast in the 2024 election across the nation.
There were 751 ballots cast the first day in Brantley County with the number at 2,748 when the office closed Monday afternoon with 10 days remaining. Early Voting runs through Friday, November 1.
In the May 21 General Primary, there were 2,339 ballots cast (18.90 percent) out of 12,378 registered voters.
There were just over 310,000 Georgia voters who cast their ballot on the first day of October 15. This is up from 70,849 on the first day of Early Voting in the 2018 midterm election, 136,739 in the 2020 Presidential Election, and beats the first day of Early Voting of 134,962 in the 2022 midterm election.
Registered voters in Brantley County have kept a steady pace over the first six days.
Early voting is from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., running through Friday, November 1. The remaining Saturday date October 26 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
The accepted forms of identification for in-person voting:
• Any valid state or federal government- issued photo ID, including a free ID card issued by your county registrar’s office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services.
• A Georgia driver’s license, even if expired
• Student ID from a Georgia public College or University
• Valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state
• Valid U.S. passport ID
• Valid U.S. military photo ID containing a photograph of the voter
• Valid tribal photo ID containing a photograph of the voter Absentee ballots may be requested until Friday, October 25. All absentee ballots must be delivered by mail or be in the hands of election officials by the close of the polls at 7 p.m. November 5.
Voting Election Day on Tuesday, November 5 will be 7 a.m.-7 p.m., in Hoboken at the Community Center, in Nahunta at the Senior Center, and in Waynesville at Waynesville Baptist Church.
Here’s a breakdown of early voter numbers so far:
• About 700,000 White voters and over 300,000 Black voters cast ballots this week, according to the state’s data hub as of 4:30 p.m. Friday.
• Women outpaced men, 54.9% to 44.8%.
• Voters between the ages of 65 and 69 accounted for the largest single group of early voters. Over 169,600 cast votes, accounting for 30% of voter turnout. Older voters in general dominated. More than 700,000 between the ages of 65 and 99 cast ballots.
• Those between the ages of 18 and 24 — the state’s largest bloc of registered voters — posted the lowest turnout percentage-wise this week: 55,278 voted, or 5.7% of total turnout.
• Over 10,300 voters between the ages of 90 and 99 cast ballots in person or by mail.
• Roughly 5% of the votes expected to be cast in this year’s election will be mail-in ballots, secretary of state spokesman Mike Hassinger said. About 26% of the ballots cast during the 2020 election were mailin, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
• On Tuesday, 313,351 Georgians voted in person. Another 279,057 voted Wednesday and 258,554 voted Thursday, secretary of state data shows. As of Friday at 4:30, 247,407 voted in person Friday, putting this week’s total at 1.1 million.
