Potential early voters in Carroll County, who have missed opportunities to vote during the week, will have a chance to cast early ballots today, the only early voting Saturday scheduled.

The elections office, on the lower level of the county administrative building at 423 College St. in Carrollton will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday for early voting. State law requires at least one Saturday be designated for early voting.

At the conclusion of the first two weeks of early voting on Friday, 1,742 voters had cast ballots.

“We’ve been averaging about 150 voters every day,” Elections Supervisor Becky Deese said. “In previous elections, we were lucky to have 20 per day. I hope this means we’re going to have a large turnout.”

Deese speculated last week that these high early voting numbers might be due to increased public interest in local elections. In many of the ballot contests, the winner will face no competition in the Nov. 8 general election, so whoever wins in this primary, gets the office.

Next week will be the final week to vote early, with early polls open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Next Friday will be the final day to submit an application for an absentee ballot, which must be in the elections office by 3 p.m.

“There will be no voting of any kind on Monday, July 30,” Deese said. “On election day, voters are required to vote at their assigned precincts. We will have no voting at the elections office on election day.”

Absentee ballots must be back in the elections office by 7 p.m. on election day to be counted. Military and overseas ballots can be accepted up to the Friday after election, as long as they are postmarked on or before election day.

Deese said voters can find their precinct location by going online to the Georgia Secretary of State website, www.sos.ga.gov/MVP.

“This is a primary election and voters have to select a party ballot, either Republican, Democratic or non-partisan,” she said. “The non-partisan ballot has only the non-partisan races and T-SPLOST referendum on it.”

Selecting a party ballot in this election is not a party registration and does not obligate a person to vote in that party primary in future elections.

Absentee ballot application forms are available online at the secretary of state or county website, or by calling the county elections office.

Contests on the ballot include U.S. representatives, state senators and representatives, county commissioners, school board members, nonpartisan judicial races and the 1-cent T-SPLOST referendum.

A referendum on Sunday sales of beer and wine will only be on the ballot for voters living inside the Temple city limits.

Both Republican and Democratic ballots will have some non-binding, straw poll questions which were put on the ballot by the parties to sample how voters feel on certain issues.

Anyone with questions about voting or the ballot can call the county elections office at 770-830-5823.