With the close of candidate qualifying last week, Putnam Elections Supervisor Kimberly Rudolph announced deadlines and schedules for various forms of District 3 voting in the Nov. 7 special election for that district’s county commission seat, recently vacated by Alan Foster.
Putnam County’s District 3 includes the Lake Oconee area and the northern half of the Lake Sinclair area. Only voters who live in District 3 will cast ballots. Any District 3 voter – Republican, Democratic, or Independent – may participate.
“This is not a primary; this is an election,” Rudolph stressed.
Voter registration:
Tuesday, Oct. 10 is the final day for the Board of Elections office to accept voter registration applications. The Board of Elections office is in the county administration building off U.S. 441, at the north end of Eatonton. With 5,176 registered voters as of Sept. 20, District 3 has more registered voters than any of the three other county precincts.
Absentee voting:
Applications for absentee ballots must be received in the Board of Elections office by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27. Physical ballots must be returned and in the Board of Elections office by 7 p.m. on election day, Nov. 7. They may be returned by mail, by placing them in a drop box inside the board office, or by hand delivery.
In federal and state elections, overseas and military absentee ballots have an extra three days to arrive at a local board office. However, that rule applies to state and federal elections only and not to a strictly local election. In any case, such votes tend to be very few – the Putnam board received seven in all of the 2022 primaries, run-offs, and elections.
Advance voting:
Ballots in the special election may be cast ahead of the Nov. 7 election day in the Board of Elections office, beginning on Monday, Oct. 16, and ending on Friday, Nov. 3. The two-week period includes two Saturdays but no Sundays. The office is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Election day voting:
Voting on election day, Nov. 7, will take place in the normal precinct voting sites, including Precinct 105 at the Lake Oconee Lutheran Church and Precinct 106 at the Crooked Creek community center. Voting will be held from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. No election-day voting will take place at the Board of Elections office.