It is entirely possible that come November 3, the Board of Elections might have a fairly easy day of work compared to the nightmare scenario of long lines on Election Day.

Some 10,100 people have already voted out of the 25,480 registered voters in Polk County, just shy of 40% of the whole of the number of registered voters in Polk County. Elections Coordinator Brande Coggins said she hopes this number continues to rise, and encourages people to vote early and get the hassle out of the way now and help make Election Day smooth for all parties involved – voters and officials counting the ballots.

The Board of Elections office in Cedartown and the Nathan Dean Community Center in Rockmart hosted Early Voting for the lone Saturday of the period this weekend, and combined the two precincts saw 446 more voters take part in the election. Individually, that is 214 voters at the Rockmart precinct, and 232 who voted in Cedartown.

Again, officials continue to encourage people to take advantage of early voting or utilizing an absentee ballot – and avoid using a stamp to return it if they can at the dropbox location in Cedartown at the County Administration building at 144 West Ave., Cedartown.

Early voting resumes on Monday during a normal schedule of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at both precincts, with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday this coming week. Wednesday and Friday, the final day of early voting, will resume normal hours each day.

Turnout is the largest in recent memory for early voting according to Elections Director Lee Ann George, and much of that is in person so far ensuring that counting on Election Night will be slightly easier for volunteers who help the staff open and count absentee ballots by hand on November 3.

Want to know what’s on the ballot locally in 2020? Click here.

According to statistics provided by the U.S. Elections Project tracking state-by-state tallies of early voting, Georgia has so far seen 2.5 million votes cast in the election coming on November 3, and 57,283,764 ballots are completed nationwide. More absentee ballots are in early than in-person voters, per the project’s tally as of Saturday night, October 24.

The state with the highest turnout so far for early voting is the 6.8+ million ballots cast in Texas.

Voters who want to cast a ballot can vote at either the Board of Elections precinct this week, or at the Nathan Dean Community Center regardless of their regular precinct on Election Day.

You can find out about your voting status, your precinct for election day if you aren’t voting early for some reason, and more by visiting the Secretary of State’s My Voter Page. Additionally, they have a tool to help track your absentee ballot if you are voting by mail to ensure it has made it back into the Board of Elections without issue before November 3 at 7 p.m. (Note: you have to provide login information to use the Absentee ballot tracker. Simple to use with basic information involved.)

The easiest way to get an absentee ballot at this time is by requesting one through the Secretary of State’s website, and the simplest way to return it is in-person via the Drop Box.

Check back through the week for additional election updates on Polk.Today.