Early Voting Off To Strong Start

An average of more than 700 Oconee County voters has cast a ballot in the first seven days of early voting for the Nov. 6 elections.

The 4,996 votes cast as of the end of the day Tuesday represents 18.1 percent of the county’s 27,530 active registered voters.

If that daily average holds in the remaining nine days of early voting, 41.5 percent of the county’s registered voters would have cast a ballot in early voting

In 2014, the last comparable year in the election cycle, 24.4 percent of the county’s then 22,526 active registered voters participated in early voting.

The projected high level of participation in 2018 compared with 2014 could be due to a higher level of interest in the current campaign and ultimately higher voter turnout, to a stronger preference for early versus election day voting this election year, or a combination of the two.

Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor and an Athens native, will be attempting to further stir up local interest next week when his campaign bus tour makes a stop at 10 a.m. on Oct. 29 at the Pavilion at Oconee Veterans Park, 3500 Hog Mountain Road.

In a nonpartisan event on Thursday, Rep. Deborah Gonzalez of Athens from the 117th House District, which includes parts of Oconee County, and Sen. Renee Unterman of Buford from the 45th Senate District will participate in a Human Trafficking Awareness Forum.

The trafficking forum, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at Oconee County Civic Center, 2661 Hog Mountain Road, includes a survivor of trafficking and Lt. Deanna Smith of the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office. The forum is being organized by the North Oconee Rotary Club.

For more on this story, with day-to-day early voting figures, go to Oconee County Observations.