The Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections is moving early voting this fall from the cramped downtown election office to the more spacious Lyndon House Arts Center, and will expand voting hours at advance voting locations across the county.
After extensive discussions—mainly around staffing challenges and cooperation with the facilities where early voting takes place—the BOE approved a schedule for early voting. “We want to create a buffet menu and make everybody happy, but we have to keep a lot of things in mind,” Director of Elections and Voter Registration Charlotte Sosebee said.
Early voting will begin Tuesday, Oct. 15 at the Lyndon House with hours from 7 a.m.–5 p.m. through that Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19 and 12–3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20.
Hours for the second week of early voting will be 7 a.m.–7 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Lyndon House. Four more early voting locations—at the Miriam Moore Community Center, the ACC Library, the Cooperative Extension office and the tennis center at Southeast Clarke Park—will open on Saturday, Oct 26. Hours at all five locations will be 9 a.m.–5 p.m. that day. Only the Lyndon House will be open that Sunday, from 12–3 p.m.
For the third week of early voting, the Lyndon House and the Moore Center will be open from 7 a.m.–7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1—the last day of early voting before Election Day Nov. 5. The library, the extension office and the tennis center will be open from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. that Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and until 7 p.m. on Wednesday. In addition, voting will be held at the Tate Student Center on campus from 7 a.m.–5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 28 and Tuesday, Oct. 29, and from 7 a.m.–7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
The board also voted to change the dropbox location for absentee ballots to the Lyndon House.
Eastside Projects Top Agenda
Athens-Clarke County Commission had an unusually brief agenda-setting meeting on Aug. 20, taking just an hour and 11 minutes to discuss 25 agenda items the commission will vote on Tuesday, Sept. 4.
A request to rezone a 23-acre parcel on Shadybrook Drive—off of Lexington Road near the Barnett Shoals Road intersection—from RS-8 (small single-family lots) to RM-1 (low-density multifamily) took up about half the brief meeting. Developer Ronnie Kittle is proposing to build 60 cottage-style condominiums, with nature trails on the back end of the property that could link up with the North Oconee River Greenway. While commissioners did not express opposition to the development itself, some were concerned that the plans are not binding, meaning that if the rezone were approved and the property sold, someone else could build something different.
The commission will also vote next week on two related pedestrian projects for Lexington Road. One would fill in a sidewalk gap near East Athens Baptist Church with a multi-use path. The other would create a connection between Firefly Trail and neighborhoods off Lexington Road east of the Loop, fund a shared-use path near Walmart and install several flashing beacons along the busy five-lane corridor for pedestrians to cross.
A $3.7 million construction contract for Firefly Trail is also on next week’s agenda and should pass, although Commissioner Patrick Davenport took it off consent for an individual vote.
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