Clayton County residents are turning out in sizable numbers for early voting - spurred in part by a public transit referendum, the top elections official said Friday.
As of 3 p.m. Friday, the county elections office had seen more than 5,568 early voters, according to Elections Director Annie Bright. Friday was the end of the second week of early voting, which closes on Oct. 31.
“I don’t recall a turnout like this in a mid-term election in the second week of early voting,” Bright told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Bright attributed part of the surge to the governor’s and U.S. senate races but said the referendum, which asks voters to approve a contract with MARTA, was a big reason for the turnout. A major grassroots push in the last month to register voters and spread the word about MARTA may have also helped drive voters in early.
This weekend should push those numbers even higher as Clayton hosts its first Sunday voting.
“We’re looking forward to seeing what the Sunday voting will be like,” Bright said.
In an unofficial exit poll of 11 voters Friday on the MARTA question, 8 people voted yes and 3 voted no. In one family, the question drew mixed results.
“We’re a divided household,” Riverdale resident Betty Black said Friday as she and her 27-year-old daughter, Kristen, left the old courthouse in downtown Jonesboro after voting. Black voted for MARTA. Her daughter voted against it.
“I work at the airport and there are people there who don’t have a way to work and I think it’s patently unfair to have to take a taxi back and forth to work,” Black said. Daughter Kristen said she believes a vote for MARTA would bring more crime and unruly people into the county.
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