If you have not registered to vote in November’s general election, the clock is ticking.
Registration ends at noon Saturday at the circuit clerk’s office. You can register from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. until Saturday.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve had any lines of people wanting to register, but we’ve had a steady flow in the last few weeks,” said Lowndes County circuit clerk Haley Salazar. “Right now, we have a little less than 40,000 registered voters in the county.”
Salazar said those wishing to register should bring their driver’s license or, if they don’t have their license with them, their license number, address or last four numbers of their social security number.
The general election will be held Nov. 3. It will decided state-wide races, along with some local races, including District 16 District Attorney.
“We hope we’ll have a better turnout than we did for the primaries,” Salazar said. “In the Republican primary we have 7,057 voters, which is 17.8 percent. It was even lower in the Democratic primary. We have 4,950 voters, which is 12 percent. We think the turnout will be a lot better than that. Typically, in the general election people will vote. A lot of people who didn’t vote in the primary will vote in the general election.”
Salazar said the largest turnouts are for national elections.
Salazar’s final election
In Lowndes County, there will also be an election to determine who will take over as circuit clerk. Salazar is retiring after 24 years as circuit clerk. She had worked in the circuit clerk’s office for 16 years prior to that.
The November election will be her last of many elections she has conducted in her official duties.
“There’s a big old smile on my face,” Salazar said. “Over the past 40 years working in this office, you are talking about a lot of elections.”
In addition to voter registration, her office is also busy with absentee voting, which began Sept. 23. Voters who want to vote absentee at the circuit clerk’s office have until noon on Oct. 31. Mail-in absentee votes must arrive at the clerk’s office by Nov. 2.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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