Early voting times get slight tweak for October

The hours for early voting will get a tweak in October.

The Madison County Election Commission met on Thursday, Aug. 15, to set the hours, and the Commission voted to adjust the hours on Tuesdays.

“I make a motion that we approve the hours as they’ve been set except on Tuesdays, we move them back to 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.,” said Commissioner Tim Wilson.

Charles Byrd seconded the motion and gave his reasoning for it.

“We’ll probably have some extra volume incur for this particular Presidential election,” Byrd said. “So adjusting it a couple hours may open an opportunity for second- and third-shift workers.

“But we’re just doing it for two days on the same day of the week – not at the beginning or end of early voting. And it doesn’t change our cost as far as paying people because it’s the same number of hours.”

The vote was unanimously approved among those present for the meeting. Neither of the Commissioners who represent the Democratic Party were present.

After the meeting, Election Administrator Lori Lott said the time adjustment is normal for a Presidential election.

“We moved the hours back an hour or two for a couple of days in the 2012, ’16 and ’20 elections,” Lott said. “But the difference is usually the moved hours are in the last couple days, so having it on the same day of the week is something new this year.”

Lott said that will actually help her crew as the digital voting machines have to be reprogrammed between the end of early voting and Election Day, which is a tedious effort that takes all weekend.

Before the motion and vote, there were a few public comments made as a number of citizens – all Republicans – were present for the meeting. Local Republican Party chairman Brad Greer said he’s against adjusting the times because his opinion is there’s already enough hours set for voting, and the current schedule was the schedule set by the local Democrat Party when the Democrats still have the majority in the State House.

Peg Ramsay, who was speaking as an official from the local Republican Women’s group, asked about moving hours back an hour or two because she had a friend that got to early voting as early as she could during the most recent time of voting and arrived at about 4:10 p.m.

Early voting begins on Wednesday, Oct. 16 through Thursday, Oct. 31. Voting hours will be 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Tuesday and 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday. Election Day will be Nov. 5 and voting hours will be 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news