Despite a record turn-out of early voters for the 2018 midterm election, thousands of voters waited until election day to cast their ballots in local and state elections.
For some voters, work and school got in the way of early voting, leading them to the polls early in the morning on November 6.
“I meant to early vote,” one early-morning voter at Memorial Park stated, “but I just didn’t get around to it.”
“I chose to vote today because it was a little more convenient since Clarke County Schools had the day off,” said another woman named Christina, who only wanted to use her first name.
Others, stated that they simply felt more patriotic voting on Election Day.
“I kept meaning to go to early voting and just didn’t end up with time to get down there. I heard the lines were long, and I kind of like voting on Election Day,” said Athens resident Callan Steinmann.
And for one Athens voter, Marquis Dugger, waiting until Election Day was all about making sure his vote was actually cast.
“I didn’t vote early, although I intended to, because of the massive amount of reporting that came out just a couple of weeks ago about errors with the voting machines,” Dugger said. “So I was like, well, on a statistic level, it’s probably easier to wait until we’re closer to that day than it would be to vote for multiple weeks out and then have something potentially go disastrously wrong.”
Polls closed at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday night.
