Lee County Elections Board discusses advance voting ahead of November

(LEESBURG, GA) – With Election Day only a couple of months away, the Lee County Elections Board is working to make sure many in the county are able to cast their vote in-person.

In Lee County alone, they normally see a high turnout of around 80% of registered voters in November.

“We’re actually adding several hours of voting in select locations. We’re still going to be open at the Elections Office here in Leesburg for our normal three week period, plus the one Saturday,” says Lee County Elections Supervisor, Veronica Johnson.

A list of dates and times for advance voting in October.

As a means of making sure to limit any possible COVID-19 spread, the board of elections has opted to use locations like the Oakland Library as pop-up polling places in October

While long waiting times to vote hasn’t been a problem in Southwest Georgia, the Board of Elections wants to make sure that everyone who is voting in-person is in and out in no time.

Johnson says, “To minimize lines, we wanted to be able to open some additional precincts and get the most bang for our buck. And hopefully we’ll be able to prevent long lines, not just at our advanced voting locations.”

As these additional sites are set up, the Board of Elections wants to not only make sure people have a good chance of being able to vote in-person, they’re also doing this as a means to protect poll workers as well.

Johnson tells us, “The more voters who take advantage of the advanced voting, the better off we all are. Because we have minimized people standing in lines for an extended amount of time. We’ve also minimized the number of poll workers will come in contact with on a single day.”

While advance voting won’t start in October, the typically large voter turnout for the county means that come Election Day, people won’t be stuck possibly waiting for hours to vote.