Although early voting numbers across Georgia have risen by 34% since the last midterm, Oglethorpe County has seen a decrease in early voter turnout this year.
Oglethorpe County has 11,309 eligible voters; 2,852 have voted early, a turnout of 25%.
“We're running somewhat behind during advanced voting,” said Steve McCannon, Oglethorpe County election assistant. “Whether this is going to be made up on Election Day, I don’t know.”
The Board of Elections office has been averaging about between 200-250 voters a day, and McCannon said these numbers will need to rise to the 250-300 range between now and Election Day to match 2018 and 2020 total voter turnout.
In the 2018 midterm election, Oglethorpe County had 70% total voter turnout. That increased to 75% in 2020.
The voter turnout percentage on Election Day during the 2018 and 2020 elections was around the 40% mark. However, Election Day voting reached 15% in last year’s election.
“We're gonna have to have 35% voter turnout on Election Day, which normally we haven't done because it's been early voting,” McCannon said.
Lower-than-normal turnout is unusual for Oglethorpe County.
The county tends to be in the top 15 counties in the state when it comes to voter turnout, McCannon said, with the largest turnout of area counties (Clarke, Madison, Elbert) in previous years.
There hasn’t been an increase in mail-in ballots and early voting in the county, like in other areas of the state. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election saw a massive increase in mail-in and early voting, but those numbers have started to drop again. Oglethorpe County had 1,800 mail-in ballots in 2020, compared to only 500 this cycle.
In the House District 124 race between Republican incumbent Trey Rhodes and challenger Democrat Kat Howkins, 30.5% of eligible voters have submitted a ballot, with a majority doing so via in-person early voting.
Voting hours
The Oglethorpe County Board of Elections Office (41 Fairground Road, Lexington) is open for early voting through Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Election Day from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.