More than 10,000 DeKalb County residents have already cast ballots in this month’s elections.
Through Sunday, the first week of advance voting ahead of May 24 primary elections, county documents showed that 10,410 ballots had been submitted in-person. Another 944 mail-in ballots had been returned, with 666 formally accepted thus far.
In addition to high-profile primaries in state and federal races, several key local elections are also on the ballot in DeKalb.
» View sample ballots here.
They include three county commission races, most notably for the open District 2 seat that has Democrats Lauren Alexander (a nonprofit management consultant), Marshall Orson (a longtime DeKalb school board member) and Michelle Long Spears (who has the endorsement of retiring commissioner Jeff Rader) competing against each other.
While the May 24 election is technically a party primary, no Republicans qualified for the District 2 seat, which covers parts of the Decatur and North Druid Hills areas. That means the Democratic winner will earn a spot on the commission.
Three DeKalb County school board races, which are nonpartisan, are also on the ballot.
They include the open race to fill Orson’s seat and a District 6 race that may get interesting. Several local officials have rescinded their support for incumbent school board member Diijon DaCosta after he helped lead the controversial ouster of schools superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris.
DeKalb is hosting advanced in-person voting at 13 different locations. A list of those sites can be found here; a map is included below.
Early voting hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays through May 20. Locations will also be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 14, and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 15.
Friday is the last day to to request an absentee ballot.
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