Fannin County Voters Up Early for 2012 Election

Featured Stories, Politics

A large crowd of voters turned out early this morning for the last day of the 2012 General Election at Blue Ridge’s Toccoa Precinct, one of the two largest voting precincts in Fannin County.Fannin County has a total of 12 precincts and over 16,000 registered voters, according to Ginney Elrod, an employee at the Fannin County Board of Elections. Elrod also says that out of these 16,000 registered voters, a total of 3,980 people including 725 absentee voters have voted early in Fannin County.

In an interview this morning, Toccoa Precinct Poll Manager Gordon Riddoch told FYN that even with the high number of early voters, the precinct is still estimating 800 people to show up for the November 6th election day.

In the election today, two candidates are both vying for America’s votes to be the next President of the United States: President Barrack Obama and Republican Nominee Mitt Romney. In 2008, current President Barrack Obama won the election against then Republican Nominee John McCain on a stance of “hope and change”, but many Americans today are dissatisfied with what Obama has since accomplished. With this is mind, FYN conducted a brief survey on a few of the approximate 800 Toccoa voters to identify voting trends.

Out of 10 people surveyed, 10 told FYN they had voted primarily Republican this morning for the 2012 Election. Of these 10, three said they had decided to vote Republican because they had based their votes more on conservative issues such as bettering the economy or creating jobs; four out of the 10 said they liked other major Republican issues such as gun control rights, pro-life views, and foreign policy; two of the 10 hoped to see a “change” in the current government such as the unification of parties, and one hoped to see better Christian values included in today’s government.

With three Presidential debates in the last month, analysts have weighed the significance of the debate performances of Obama and Romney. Out of the 10 people surveyed today, however, only one of them said the debates affected the voter’s decision.

Also, FYN asked the same 10 voters if they supported the approval of public charter schools in local communities, a controversial issue in the state of Georgia this year. Out of the same 10 voters, four said no to supporting the approval of local public charter schools, two said yes, and four said they were not well enough informed to make a decision.

Georgia is essentially a Republican state. As such, Romney is expected to win Georgia’s sixteen electoral votes. However, Romney will also need to win swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Yesterday, both President Obama and Governor Romney visited Ohio for the final stop of their campaigns. Romney also has plans to stop in Cleveland today, a move that may prove beneficial.

Lifetime Fannin County resident Kenneth Mashburn is the first to vote at the Toccoa Precinct this morning.

More pictures from the 2012 General Election:

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