Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.Tuesday for municipal elections in Albany, other area cities

ALBANY — Over 18 days of advance early voting ahead of Tuesday municipal elections in Albany less than 2,700 voters cast ballots in races for mayor, two City Commission races and a countywide question on extending a penny sales tax.

Voters have one last chance to improve turnout for the fall elections on Tuesday when polls will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Voters in Leesburg and Smithville also have competitive municipal races on the ballot, and a number of area cities also have 2023 contests that will decide local leaders for the next four years.

During the advance voting period 2,613 voters cast ballots.

“When you consider there are approximately 68,106 voters countywide, in the city (Albany) about 56,982, no, that’s not good,” Dougherty County Election Supervisor Ginger Nickerson said of the turnout for early voting. “That’s with three weeks (including) two Saturdays and a Sunday.

“We say people here are your local government. These are people you can call on the telephone and make appointments to see.”

In the Albany mayor’s race, incumbent Mayor Bo Dorough faces three challengers: former City Commission member Henry Mathis, Omar Salaam and Antonio Screen Sr.

In Ward 1 incumbent the city’s longest-serving City Commissioner, Jon Howard, is being challenged by Lawrence McCray. And in Ward VI Marion Gaines-Jones and Larry Harris are looking to unseat incumbent Chad Warbington.

All county voters can weigh in on the ballot question on extending the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST) on Tuesday.

Voters who are unsure of which races they can cast ballots in can find out by visiting the My Voter Page feature on the Georgia Secretary of State’s website at https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/. Voters also can find out which precinct they should cast a ballot in and see a sample ballot.

Sample ballots also will be available at each precinct.

There are 26 voting precincts in the county, Nickerson said, and of those seven are entirely made up of voters in unincorporated Dougherty County who are eligible to vote on the T-SPLOST question. Albany voters also can vote in that contest.

Voters who voted at the Driscoll Community Center will vote First Mt. Olive Baptist Church’s Jake Edwards Fellowship, located at 513 Corn Ave., for the 2023 election.

And the former Palmyra Methodist Church and Phoebe HealthWorks locations have been merged and voters who formerly voted at those locations will vote in the former band room at the Albany High School campus at 801 W. Residence Ave.

A list of precinct locations is available at https://www.dougherty.ga.us/government/departments/voter-registration-elections/.

With the close of advance early voting there will be no voting on Monday.

“Tuesday is election day and all 26 precincts will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” Nickerson said. “We strongly encourage our citizens to get out and cast ballots. We strongly encourage citizens to take advantage of this process.”

Voters who received absentee ballots also still have time to return them. Ballots may be mailed or voters can drop them off at the Voter Registration and Elections Office, located in Room 220 of the 222 Pine Ave. Government Center.

Absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. Tuesday in order to be counted.