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Troup County saw a large number of voters taking time to cast their ballots during the one Saturday available for early voting.

Elections Supervisor Andy Harper said 895 votes were cast at the Troup County Government Center on Saturday. Even more are expected through Friday when early voting is scheduled to end.

Harper said early voting on Saturday went smoothly, but it was busy. He expects it to continue being busy throughout the week due to the shortened early-voting period.

The single day of weekend voting was made possible after a Fulton County superior court judge ruled that the law restricting Saturday voting following a state holiday did not apply to runoffs.

After the ruling, an emergency meeting of the Troup County Board of Election was held and voting on Saturday, Nov. 26 was approved. The Georgia Supreme Court later upheld the decision after a Republican Party challenge.

Harper said they didn’t have any problems getting poll workers for Saturday despite the late change.

In Troup County, the 895 Saturday votes represent about 4 percent of the votes cast in the Nov. 8 election. The count far exceeds the 589 early votes cast on Saturdays for the regular election.

That actual percentage of Saturday votes will be based on the overall turnout in the run-off, which is expected to be high due to the highly-contested runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

The District 2 city council runoff between Leon Childs and Quay Boddie will also be on the ballot.

As of Monday morning, 181,711 Georgians have cast votes in the Dec. 6 runoff, according to Gabriel Sterling of the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

Statewide early voting will continue for all 159 counties through Friday, Dec. 2 with Election Day on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

The Troup County Board of Elections has announced that they again plan to begin counting absentee ballots for the runoff at 2 p.m. on Election Day. All absentee ballots must be received at the Elections Office by 7 p.m.