54% of registered voters in DeKalb casted their ballots early

More than half of DeKalb County’s registered voters chose to cast their ballots early this presidential election.

From Monday, Oct. 12 through Friday, Oct. 30, DeKalb officials recorded 308,283 cast ballots, including both in-person votes and returned absentee ballots. There are 572,856 registered voters in the county, meaning 53.8% of those eligible to vote in DeKalb have done so.

That is slightly above the 51% of registered voters in Georgia who voted early.

DeKalb’s figure smashes 2016′s percentage of early voting participation, which was a record-setting 37.2%. In fact, nearly every early voting record was broken in DeKalb this election, according to data provided by the county.

ExploreDeKalb sets early voting record with more than 180K in-person ballots cast

More than 195,000 DeKalb voters cast their ballots in-person during the early voting period, while 112,741 voters submitted absentee ballots.

As of Monday morning, more than 30,000 absentee ballots requested in DeKalb had yet to be returned.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger suggested taking them to an official county dropbox for absentee ballots instead of sending by mail. To be counted, absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

DeKalb recently added nine more absentee ballot dropboxes, bringing the county’s total to 35. Find lists of dropbox locations — and recently relocated Election Day polling places — below.

DeKalb County elections director Erica Hamilton said Monday that the county was “up to date” on opening and scanning absentee ballots that had been returned. Counties can begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day but cannot start counting them until after polls close.

Hamilton said her office, which has had its readiness to conduct a smooth election repeatedly questioned, is prepared for Tuesday. She said the county has extra manpower and resources on stand-by, ready to be deployed at precincts where long lines or other issues are reported.

“We are prepared for it, even though we think Election Day may not be as busy as it was during the advance voting period,” Hamilton said.

Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Advance in-person votes cast per day in DeKalb County:

• Monday, Oct. 12: 15,914

• Tuesday, Oct. 13: 12,888

• Wednesday, Oct. 14: 13,202

• Thursday, Oct. 15: 13,196

• Friday, Oct. 16: 13,655

• Saturday, Oct. 17: 6,997

• Sunday, Oct. 18: 4,856

• Monday, Oct. 19: 11,069

• Tuesday, Oct. 20: 10,534