With less than a week remaining before the voter registration deadline, the Athens County Board of Elections reported yesterday having 41,631 residents registered ' a 4.6 percent boost in registration compared to the last gubernatorial election.
And while the turnout on Nov. 7 will remain unknown until then, it likely will be better this year because the governor's race has been heated, said Debbie Quivey, director of the board of elections.
Quivey added that in a four-year voting cycle, the gubernatorial election year also has the second-highest voter turnout, with presidential election years having the highest.
To make citizens aware of the registration deadline of 9 p.m. Tuesday, Quivey said the board placed ads in three local papers. Student organizations such as the Ohio University College Democrats and OU College Republicans also have been out registering people and bringing completed forms to the board, she said.
We always have a little bit of a rush
Quivey said, adding the county probably will process fewer last-minute registrations because of a recent law requiring forms to be submitted within 10 days of being filled out.
The board will receive registrations submitted or postmarked by Tuesday, after which new voters and voters who have moved into the state will be unable to vote. Voters who report changes in their voter registration after Tuesday will have to vote provisionally.
One change Quivey said she expects this year is that absentee voting will be higher than the 2002 gubernatorial election. That year, the county processed 1,337 ballots.
Absentee voting began Monday, and the board already has received about 500 absentee ballot applications, most likely because of the no-fault absentee voting law the state adopted that allows voters to file absentee ballots without a reason, Quivey said. 17
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Andrea Golby
