After the first three days of Early Voting for local elections in Polk County, the ballots cast thus far are on the low side for the two precincts open through November 3 ahead of Election Day 2023.

So far, the Board of Elections has posted just 19 ballots cast in Cedartown, and 43 in Rockmart to bring the total thus far to just 62 overall through the first three days of early voting.

Additionally some 24 absentee ballots have been issued to voters as well by mail. They’ll have until Election Day to turn those into the office to be counted.

Voters are being asked to come to the polls countywide this year for a consideration on the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax measure, which will expire in 2026 without a renewal. Local elections this year also include the Rockmart Mayor’s Race and Aragon City Elections.

Cedartown candidates for the City Commission seats are unopposed this year, as well as two Rockmart City Council seats.

The Mayor’s seat, plus three of the four council seats, are up in Aragon this year. One of those is for the unexpired term left open in 2022 by Daniel Johnson’s fall resignation.

Ballots can be cast early on weekdays through Friday, November 3, 2023 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Early voting Saturdays are coming up this weekend, October 21 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at both precincts, and one on October 28 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Precincts for early voting can be found in Cedartown and the new location at the Goodyear Civic Center at 108 Prior St., Cedartown. Rockmart’s precinct remains at the Nathan Dean Community Center at 605 Goodyear Ave., Rockmart.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 7 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. across all of the precincts in Polk County since the SPLOST vote is up this year.

Ballot issue gets fixed

Along with the stresses of the start of early voting, a problem with ballots for the uncontested Rockmart City Council races were also found and fixed early this week.

On Monday night after having to announce the issue where the names for Ward 2’s Marty Robinson and Ward 5’s Rick Stone were mistakenly switched, machines were updated at both precincts with the correct ballots.

New absentee paper copies arrived to send out to voters who might want them by mail. Those were also rush ordered on Monday.

Elections Director Noah Beck said that only seven voters in total were impacted by the ballot issues, and those will have to go before a provisional board on Election Night to ensure they are cast correctly.

Fortunately the issue was caught early on Monday morning and ensured that a low number of voters would be impacted.