Albany Herald

Photo by Casey Dixon

ALBANY, Ga. -- The early returns on voter interest are in and while the turnout is extremely light, Dougherty County's per capita turnout so far for the July 20 primary elections is one of the highest in the state.

Still, that is a small segment -- under one-half of 1 percent -- of the eligible voters in the county.

According to election information obtained through the Georgia Secretary of State's Office, only 13,143 of the state's 4.9 million registered voters have taken advantage of the first two weeks of a month-long early voting period.

According to the document, Cobb County leads all Georgia counties in number of voters who have cast ballots with 562. Fulton, Chatham, Gwinnett and Ware round out the top five. Dougherty County finished Wednesday's election period with 200 voters having gone to the polls.

But when the number of votes cast is compared with the number of registered voters, as is done to determine voter turnout percentage, Dougherty County's 0.38 percent is second only to Ware County at 2.1 percent.

Dougherty County Elections Supervisor Ginger Nickerson said Wednesday that there had been a trickle of voters flowing into her office at the government center in downtown Albany since early voting period began June 7.

Voters can cast their ballots early until July 16.

According to the latest statistics, Dougherty County has more than 50,500 registered voters. Typically, Dougherty's turnout for regular elections meets or exceeds the state's average turnout.

People who haven't registered to vote but wish to for the primary must sign up in Nickerson's office downtown by the close of business Monday, elections officials say.