Rockdale Citizen

CONYERS -- Polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the 41,466 Rockdale County voters who did not cast an early ballot.

Early voting, which ended Friday, drew more than 7,000 voters who cast ballots either in person or by mail. More than 14 percent of Rockdale's 48,523 active voters cast early votes, according to the Rockdale County Board of Elections. Republican voters outnumbered Democrats 4,268 to 2,690. Nonpartisan voters cast 99 total ballots.

According to the Board of Elections, voters who have not already voted may confirm their voter registration and polling place by going to the Secretary of State website at www.sos.ga.gov/MVP. Voters may also contact the Board of Elections Office at 770-278-7333 or visit the website at www.rockdalecounty.org.

Ten of Rockdale County's 18 voting precincts are located at public schools -- where 60 percent of the county's active voters are set to cast ballots. Rockdale County schools opened to students on Monday, but school and elections officials said no problems are anticipated on Primary Election Day. Schools will be closed for the General Election on Nov. 6.

Cynthia Welch, supervisor of elections for Rockdale County, said in an earlier interview that her office is predicting a turnout of 30 percent for the primary elections, or approximately 14,450 voters. Welch's prediction of 15 percent early voter turnout was close to the actual mark of 14.54 percent.

In addition to candidate elections, today's ballots include a number of nonbinding questions as well as the T-SPLOST referendum. Welch pointed out that the Republican ballot is eight pages long on the voting touch screen, and the Democrat ballot is seven pages long, with the T-SPLOST referendum being the last question on the ballot. She encouraged voters to review the ballots in advance in order to speed up the voting process. Sample ballots are available on the website at www.rockdalecounty.org.