- Three voting precincts in Lowndes County saw significant damage from Helene.
- Voters in Dasher City will now have to vote at the Church of Christ.
- Early voting in Georgia runs until November 1st.
- Watch the video to see changes made to make sure everyone gets the opportunity to vote in the county.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
Sonya Laster has been faithfully voting for the 20 years she's lived in Lowndes County.
"I think it's important because we have to choose good leaders."
She was one of many neighbors who was hit by Helene last month, but she tells me she's happy that her place only got minor damage.
"We had a lot of trees down. We have damage to, like, minor stuff like our deck and gazebo. Little stuff. We got some leaks in the house."
Sonya also tells me if there was any impact Helene had on the Board of Elections, she would've been none the wiser.
"Awesome. It went great. I never been through that fast before."
And Helene hasn't had much of an impact on the early voting stage, where all votes will be cast at the Lowndes County Board of Elections.
County elections supervisor Deb Cox tells me three precincts, the Lowndes County Recreational Center, the County Civic Center, and Dasher City Hall were damaged in the storm.
The first two are moving to different buildings on the property, and Dasher City Hall voters will be heading to Dasher Church of Christ.
Precinct voting won't start until Nov. 5th.
"There's plenty of opportunities; we may look full but we have 149 parking places, and time in and out the door has been 10 minutes."
As of Tuesday afternoon, over 1,000 (1,272) neighbors have cast their votes, and despite what Lowndes went through during Helene, Deb tells me they anticipate a good turnout for this cycle.
"We had dozens of people waiting out here with camp chairs... and we opened at 7."
You have until Nov. 1st to cast an early ballot. In Valdosta, I’m Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.
