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Georgians have already cast 58,187 ballots in the shortened early voting period leading up to Super Tuesday, when this state’s Republican presidential primary will be decided.

The total equals nearly a quarter of all votes cast early in the state’s 2008 presidential primary election.

Election officials are closely watching voter turnout this year, especially following the passage of House Bill 92. Signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal in May, HB 92 shortened the period for early voting in person from 45 days to 21 days. Proponents say the change will save money and prevent confusion.

The bill — which had bipartisan support — also for the first time required that a special early in-person voting session be scheduled for a Saturday. For the March 6 primary, that session is set for today.

Some officials are expressing concerns about how the law will affect access to the ballot box.

“I still believe going from 45 to 21 days inhibits full participation of the voters,” said state Sen. Vincent Fort of Atlanta, the Senate Democratic whip, who voted against HB 92 last year. “I believe then and I believe now that ... they did it because they wanted to restrict turnout in November of this year in the presidential election” when President Barack Obama will face re-election.

Rep. Mark Hamilton, the author of HB 92,— said only a small percentage of people cast ballots in person in the first several weeks of early voting under the previous system.

“Most people were convinced that we didn’t cut it back so much that it had any effect on the voter turnout,” said Hamilton, a Republican from Cumming and the chairman of the House Government Affairs Committee.

Hamilton said the new law could also prevent confusion over candidates dropping out of races.

“Forty-five days in advance people would actually vote for people and then two or three weeks later call wanting to know if they could change their vote because the person that they had voted for was no longer running,” he said.

Local election officials are curious about how HB 92 will affect voter turnout but said it will be impossible to do an apples-to-apples comparison of turnout statistics between the primary elections in 2008, when 247,897 early ballots were cast, and 2012. Among the reasons they cited: Early voting rules were different in 2008. And while both the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries were contested that year, Obama is the only candidate on the Democratic primary ballot in Georgia this year.

As of Tuesday in Cobb County, 2,985 ballots had been cast through early in-person and mail-in voting combined in the March 6 election. As of Wednesday, 1,751 early votes had been cast in Gwinnett County. And in DeKalb County, 2,782 votes were cast as of Tuesday. DeKalb opened up a special early voting site last Saturday, but only 47 people voted then.

Marcia Boone of Morrow is among those who have voted early. She had a meeting in Jonesboro on Feb. 13, so she decided to cast her ballot while she was in town. For president, she voted for Newt Gingrich, who represented Georgia in Congress for 20 years. A retired high school teacher, Boone said she identifies with the former U.S. House speaker because he is a former college professor.

“There were 200 people ahead of me when I walked in,” Boone said of her voting experience. “I was real surprised.”

Some people voted early because of practical concerns. For example, Robert McEntyre voted Monday at a courthouse in Calhoun. He did it so he could spend more time volunteering for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign on Super Tuesday. McEntyre said he likes Romney’s business experience and his work as CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

“It sort of allows me to free up my time on Election Day,” McEntyre said of voting early.

Kelly Nguyen, a graphic artist and website developer from Atlanta, had similar reasons for voting early. She voted Feb. 13 in DeKalb, predicting she will be busy volunteering for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign on Election Day. Nguyen said she cast her ballot for the congressman from Texas, saying she likes his “consistency” and his foreign policy views.

“It was not busy at all. It was really quiet,” said Nguyen, a former congressional candidate.

Tim Echols, chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, said he voted early in Clarke County for former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

“Tuesdays are a busy day at the PSC in downtown Atlanta,” he said, “and I didn’t want to take any chances of not getting back to Athens in time” to vote.

Echols said Santorum’s strengths include “low negatives with voters” and potential to win swing states, such as his home state of Pennsylvania.

Said Echols, “I believe his balanced approach toward the family and values creates a following.”

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