As Richmond County continues to lag behind much of the state in early voting turnout, some elected officials are calling to extend voting hours ahead of Election Day.
Advance, in-person turnout was less than half that in Columbia and Muscogee counties, each of which have had multiple early voting sites, Augusta Commissioner Jordan Johnson said at a Wednesday news conference.
Richmond had only one site open, in the Linda Beazley Room at Augusta Municipal Building.
Similarly-sized Columbus-Muscogee has had three early sites open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. since the start of early voting, Johnson said, asking Richmond to adopt the longer hours.
MORE: Early voting started in Richmond and Columbia counties Monday
“We had the second-lowest early voting turnout in the entire state,” Johnson said.
According to data from the Georgia Secretary of State, Richmond also significantly trailed Chatham, Bibb, Lowndes, Glynn and all metro Atlanta counties as of Tuesday.
Last week Richmond County Board of Elections voted to add three additional advance voting sites, at the Warren Road, Henry Brigham and Robert Howard community centers, which opened Wednesday, Oct. 26.
The sites will be open until 5 p.m. this week through Saturday and to 6 p.m. next week.
While state Senate Bill 202 imposed many changes on the voting process, it allows counties to set the hours for advance voting, said Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta, who advocated for allowing counties to set the hours.
| ZIP Code | Early Voters |
| 30813 | 45 |
| 30805 | 26 |
| 30815 | 1,513 |
| 30901 | 736 |
| 30904 | 956 |
| 30905 | 12 |
| 30906 | 1,887 |
| 30907 | 233 |
| 30909 | 2,228 |
“We all assumed of course that boards of elections would choose to keep the ballot boxes open as long as possible,” Jones said.
And while adding the three sites was a start, the board now needs to extend the hours, he said.
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Hours unlikely to change
Travis Doss, executive director for Richmond County Board of Elections, said it’s unlikely the hours will be extended at this point.
Doss learned of the ask from reporters and said it hadn’t reached the board.
“When the board made the motion to open up the advance voting sites, the motion was to open them from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for three days, he said.
Adding the sites later in the process required significant accommodating of events planned at the centers, such as the busy Warren with its after school program, basketball games and senior programs, he said.
“We do not have an agreement with our workers to extend the hours. They’re poll workers; they’re not workers you can turn around tell them to work later,” he said.
Since the workers typically arrive at least an hour before voting starts and after it ends, longer hours could require some to work 14- or 15-hour days, he said.
Turnout rose during the first day with four sites open, he said. As of 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, some 1,400 had voted early, at an average of 80-90 per hour, Doss said.
Each location has approximately 14 workers, around 60-65 total, while Richmond hires around 440 to work the 43 polling locations on Election Day, he said.
Susan McCord is a staff writer with The Augusta Press. Reach her at susan@theagugustapress.com
