Early voting strong

Many Columbia County voters aren't waiting until Tuesday's General Election to cast their ballots - they've already voted.

Advanced voting at three Columbia County locations began Monday, and by the end of the day Thursday 3,266 people had taken advantage of advanced voting, said Debbie Marshall, the county's Board of Elections executive director.

"The way it is going, it is going to be more than I expected because I had said no more than 3,000 would cast in advance voting," Marshall said at the close of the polls Wednesday.

The number of voters surpassed her prediction the next day, with an average of 800 casting ballots each day, Marshall said.

Early voting ended at 6 p.m. Friday.

Unlike absentee voting, people voting in advance did not need an excuse to vote the week prior to Tuesday's General Election. More than 2,000 people cast an absentee ballot as of the end of the day on Thursday, Marshall said.

Marshall said her office began offering advanced voting in 2003. She said it was good that the advanced voting numbers exceeded her expectations. But many more voters cast advanced votes in a previous larger election.

"There is no comparison to when we did the presidential election," Marshall said. "We had a lot more for the presidential election in 2004."