Several thousand Muscogee Co. voters head to polls on first day of early voting

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - More than 3,400 hundred Muscogee County voters took advantage of the first day of early voting Monday for the crucial Jan. 5th runoff races with two U.S. Senate seats on the line. Muscogee County Elections Office Supervisor Nancy Boren says they had about 1,200 voters on the first day of voting in Oct. for the Nov. 3 General Election.

With record numbers of voter turnout in the November General Election, Boren doesn’t see expect to see a large number of voter drop off for the runoffs.

“We do anticipate that momentum to carry over into the runoff January 5th. We’ve seen that with the first day of early voting and over 3,400 people who have voted,” Boren said.

Wilburn Shingles is one of those 3,400 voters.

“I’m so happy that I’m able to come out and vote for the second time, the third time for the democratic process. I’ll be able to vote for my party,” he said.

Boren says they have not had a runoff in first part of year that includes Christmas and the New Year’s holidays.

“It’s kind of a new experience for all elections officials so we don’t really know what to expect. Typically for a runoff you have a lower turnout, but we don’t anticipate that for this election. We anticipate a high turnout and a lot of voter interest,” Boren explained.

Boren says they have already issued 22,000 absentee ballots and anticipates that number to keep rising. About 18% of Muscogee County’s total votes in the General Election were from people voting on election day.

Boren says the first day of early voting ran pretty smoothly across all five early voting locations in Columbus.

Early voting locations are open from 7:00AM - 7:00PM Dec. 14 through Dec. 23. This includes Sat, Dec. 19 and Sun., Dec 20. Following the Christmas holiday, early voting will resume from 7:00AM - 7:00PM Dec. 28 through Dec. 30. The last day of early voting is Dec. 31 from 7:00AM - 5:00PM.

The five early voting locations are:

• City Services Center - Community Room
• Columbus Convention and Trade Center - Sycamore Room
• Shirley B. Winston Recreation Center
• Psalmond Road Rec Center
• Columbus Technical College - Student Center

Precincts will be open on Jan. 5 from 7:00AM - 7:00PM.

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