Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggener says that early voting in the county is going well.
Election Day is officially less than two weeks away, and Waggener says numbers are steady at the courthouse: “Early voting is going very well. Right now, as of Tuesday afternoon, we’ve had 409 voters and grace-period voters coming into the office. We’re still about 14 days away from the election, so I expect that number to grow. Our vote by mail (VBM), I know we sent out approximately 672 ballots.”
Waggener says some concerns have been raised about how to mark ballots and whether or not a marker would spoil a ballot: “I know for the instructions call for you to use a ‘marking pen.’ What they mean by that is a ballpoint pen not a marker. Anyone who still has a ballot at home that hasn’t voted, just remember to use a ballpoint pen to mark your ballot.”
Waggener says the marking pen issue hasn’t been a problem so far, but she has heard that some voters are uneasy and hesitant about it spoiling their ballot. She says that a marker wouldn’t bleed through enough to cause issues with tabulation machines, but she says to be on the safe side, use a ballpoint pen to mark your ballot at home.
Waggener says that the next Saturday early voting event will be held November 5th from 9AM-Noon prior to Election Day. She says she doesn’t currently see a need for extended hours but will continually reassess that need based upon traffic at the courthouse over the next two weeks.