Early voting in Pickens has long lines but going smoothly

The ballot drop box will remain in place, but Julienne Roberts, Supervisor of the Board of Elections, said it is only for absentee ballots after a variety of items, including a tax payment were found.

Photo by Susan Kirkland
Sheralle Brindell , a member of the board of elections, stands by absentee ballots that are waiting to be processed.

Early election

Early voting is going smoothly despite long lines and up to an hour wait.

“The only issues we’ve had were with the state system. The servers bogged down and we couldn’t process voters very quickly on the first two days, but the state had that fixed and the system works great now,” said Julie Roberts, supervisor of elections.

She said voting in person at 83 Pioneer Road is up to 910, but she anticipates that between now and Oct.30, they will amass many more.

Prior to early voting, the elections office had received between 2,000-2,500 ballots. Roberts said. She anticipates a lot more than that number by the end of early voting on Oct. 30.

“I expect we will have 7,500 votes prior to election day,” she said.

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Board meeting

Counting absentee ballots

At October’s board meeting, the board approved advertising they would process absentee ballots early. They will open the envelops and stack groups of 25 ballots together to make feeding them into the counter easier.

They have scheduled to use Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver from Oct. 27-Oct. 30 to process the ballots. The processing will be witnessed by three people.

“Judge Weaver will select one and I’ll select two,” said Julianne Roberts, supervisor of elections.

WATCH VIDEO OF THE MEETING HERE

Roberts said that members of the board of elections should check that there is only one ballot per envelope.

“There is only one oath per envelope and it has to be signed,” she said. “The exception is for military families stationed overseas.”

Cell phones will not be allowed in the courtroom while ballots are processed.

Registering by mail

Roberts went on to say that some voters have been flagged for not having proof of identity and registered by mail.

“I’ve reached out to them to see if they can email us a copy, but pay attention to see if they have that flag.”

FIND YOUR PRECINCT HERE.

Concerns over voting machines

Roberts said while there have been concerns about the voting machines, she is confident the software issues have been dealt with.

“There were discovering candidates disappearing on the ballots,” said Roberts. “But this was before our system was tested and we didn’t see any of those issues.”

JASPER VOTES ON A MILLAGE RATE

Susan Kirkland