By DEMIE JOHNSON
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
So far, more than 112,000 people have cast their ballots early in Hamilton County. But election officials said the wait times haven’t reflected the increase in voters.
Photo provided
Election administrator Beth Sheller said wait times at the Hamilton County Judicial Center and the Fairgrounds are typically 20 to 30 minutes at the most. Although, she admits there was a bit of a lag at some of the other eight locations.
“I know at Cool Creek and at Mercy Road Church and a few of those, they’ve gotten up to an hour and even the first day we were open, a little over an hour,” Sheller said.
The county is using 150 more voting machines and 100 more poll pads this year. Sheller also noted more than 40,000 absentee ballots have been received so far, with thousands more coming in each day. Hamilton County is still waiting for roughly 7,000 more.
Sheller
Sheller said with more voters and more machines, they had to hire several new workers.
Even though more than half the county’s registered voters have already cast their ballots, Sheller believes Election Day will still be busy.
“In the last presidential (election), we voted around 68 percent to 72 percent, so if you think about that, I don’t expect our lines to be extremely long, but I expect it to be a pretty good turnout still.”
You can find a list of Hamilton County’s voting locations and times on Page 2 in the Oct. 30 edition of the Reporter.