It took 16 minutes to park, vote and leave in McDonough, GA today at lunch time. I dare say November 6, 2012 will take much longer. Recall the early voting period has been shorten so more voters will go on election day. From the AJC:
“The state is not on track to beat that record. As of Thursday, the state’s typical top five counties for ballots returned early — Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb and Henry — were on average tracking about 72 percent below their final early-voting turnout from four years ago.
Fulton and DeKalb, traditionally Democratic strongholds, were both down about 65 percent. Gwinnett, dominated by the GOP, was down about 77 percent. Cobb, also largely Republican, was down about 84 percent. Henry was down about 68 percent.
One likely explanation is the shorter period for early voting — legislators in 2011 shortened the period from 45 days to 21 days. It is also true that those gaps narrow every day and will narrow more through next week, although no one knows by how much. The state stopped short this year of publicly setting an overall early-voting goal. In a poll conducted recently for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, nearly 40 percent of likely Georgia voters said they plan to cast a ballot during early voting.”
Early voting has become extremely efficient and time saving. Janet Shellnutt has done an excellent job in making the process easy. Jim Henry Jr., Arch Brown, Andy Callaway and the rest are providing the citizens with one of the best run processes in the state. It is why Henry County, GA has one of the highest turnouts for early voting on a regular basis. Theses people who serve on this board should be congratulated and told a big thank you. It is a very crucial element and many times overlooked unless something goes really wrong.
Take time to go vote early this week. There are several locations available to you. Check here and here to find a place near you. And remember, it took 16 minutes today for me which is less time than it takes to go in a Chick-fil-a drive through when patrons celebrated marriage of man and woman.
