Turnout ‘slow’ during first two weeks of early voting in Albany

ALBANY – With seven candidates seeking the city’s highest office and two other contested races for seats on the Albany City Commission, some excitement might be expected.

Through two weeks of early voting, though, that expectation is not being met.

“Slow,” is Dougherty County Elections Supervisor Ginger Nickerson’s description of two underwhelming weeks of early voting. “Turnout have been very slow. We’ve had maybe a little more than 1,000, roughly, for two weeks. Dougherty County has over 50,000 – closer to 60,000 – registered voters, and only a little over a thousand have voted.”

There are no national or state candidates on the ballot. But the local municipal election does include seven candidates for mayor, including incumbent Dorothy Hubbard. The other candidates are Edward Allen, Kermit “Bo” Dorough, Henry Mathis, James Pratt Jr., Omar Salaam and Tracy Taylor.

There also are competitive races for Albany City Commission Ward IV, where incumbent Roger Marietta faces Chad Warbington, and there are three candidates in Ward VI, which went up for grabs when long-time incumbent Tommie Postell did not seek re-election. Those are John Hawthorne, Leroy Smith and Demetrius Young.

“This is the last week,” Nickerson said. “We’re hopeful the voters have studied and will be able to make their choices by Friday.”

Early voting runs 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. each weekday through Friday on the second floor of the 222 Pine Ave. Government Center building.

Friday also is the last day for Nickerson’s office to get mailed absentee ballots out in the mail prior to the Nov. 5 election.

Also on the ballot is the question of extending the sale hours of alcohol by the drink on Sundays in Albany, which will allow sale of mixed drinks, wine and beer to begin at 11 a.m.

Dougherty County has that same question on the ballot, as well as a second alcohol measure that would allow for package sales of beer, wine and liquor on Sunday.

Voters must bring valid photo identification in order to cast a ballot.

The most common identification used is a driver’s license, but Georgia identification cards, city and county employee identification, and military identification cards, as well as passports, are acceptable.

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