Politics & Government

DeKalb Early Voting Totals Down From 2008

A total of 161,095 people cast early votes for the 2012 election, compared to 173,064 in 2008. The reason: the early voting period was longer in 2008.


There was a big rush of early voting last Friday, but overall fewer DeKalb County voters cast early ballots in this presidential election compared to 2008.

Here are the numbers from the DeKalb Office of Voters Registration and Elections website. Early votes include mail-in votes and ballots cast in person.

  • 161,095 - Early votes cast through Friday, Nov. 2, for the 2012 General Election.
  • 173,064 -- Early votes for the 2008 General Election.

Patch asked DeKalb Elections Director Mary France Weeks why the numbers changed. This is her emailed response.

Find out what's happening in Brookhavenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Actually, the daily numbers were higher this year.  In 2008, early voting lasted 45 days – in 2012 it was reduced to 21 days. 

In 2008, we only had one early  voting site for the full 45 day period – our main office on Memorial Drive.  In 2012, we had two areas in our main office, plus two additional satellite sites for the full 21-day period.

Find out what's happening in Brookhavenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 In 2008, we added five additional sites for the week prior to the election – for a total of 6.  In 2012, we added three additional sites for a total of 7.

A little more than 34 percent of registered DeKalb voters voted early this year.

Early voting speeded up on Friday, as evidenced by longer lines. All the early polls had more votes Friday than any other day of the week. (See attached PDF).

Here's how the number of registered voters is distributed in DeKalb:

  • DeKalb County total - 470,605.
  • Unincorporated (includes Tucker) - 348,748.
  • Atlanta - 24,369.
  • Avondale Estates - 2,320.
  • Brookhaven - 28,561.
  • Chamblee - 6,957.
  • Clarkston - 3,165.
  • Decatur - 16,096.
  • Doraville - 3,735.
  • Dunwoody - 30,687.
  • Lithonia - 1,232.
  • Pine Lake - 609.
  • Stone Mountain - 4,126.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Brookhaven