Thanks to a historic flood of absentee and early voting, about half of Macon County’s registered voters will have already cast ballots ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3.
As of Tuesday, Oct. 27 – with five more days of early voting remaining, 12,965 voters had cast ballots out of 27,088 registered voters, representing a turnout of 47.8 percent. That total represents 9,896 ballots cast so far during early voting, and 3,069 returned absentee ballots.
In the 2016 election, total turnout in Macon County, including on Election Day, was 69.4 percent, according to Gary Tallent, the county’s deputy elections director.
“I’m sure we’re going to eclipse that,” Tallent said. “Someone on the [elections] board said they wouldn’t be surprised if we got to 80 percent. We can’t believe how busy we’ve been.”
Tallent said the pace of early voting, which takes place at the Robert C. Carpenter Building on Georgia Road through 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31, has eased somewhat but remains steady.
Voting has gone smoothly so far, he said. “People are behaving.”
Across North Carolina, 3,411,850 votes had been cast as of 5 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, representing a 46.57 percent turnout.
Among early voters, 4,856 were registered Republicans, 1,979 were Democrats and 3,010 were unaffiliated. Among absentee mail-in ballots, 1,272 were Democrats, 842 were Republicans and 942 were unaffiliated.
On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, polls will be open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
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Macon County precincts
• North Franklin - Franklin Town Hall - 95 Main Street, Franklin, NC 28734
• South Franklin - Macon County Public Library - 149 Siler Farm Road, Franklin
• East Franklin - Macon County Environmental Resource Center - 1624 Lakeside Drive, Franklin
• Iotla - Macon County Airport - 1241 Airport Road, Franklin
• Union - Macon County Community Building - 1288 Georgia Road, Franklin
• Millshoal - Holly Springs Community Building - 2720 Cat Creek Road, Franklin
• Ellijay - Cullasaja Gorge Fire & Rescue - 104 River Road, Franklin
• Sugarfork - Pine Grove School - 38 Peeks Creek Road, Franklin
• Highlands - Highlands Civic Center - 600 North 4th St, Highlands
• Flats - Scaly Mountain Fire Department - 169 Hale Ridge Road, Scaly Mountain
• Smithbridge - Otto Community Building - 60 Firehouse Road, Otto
• Cartoogechaye - West Macon Fire and Rescue - 564 Charles Nolen Road, Franklin
• Nantahala - Nantahala EMS Building - 1096 Junaluska Road, Topton
• Burningtown - Old Burningtown Fire Department-30 Daves Creek Road
• Cowee - Cowee School - 51 Cowee School Drive