By Patrick Yost
Editor

Somebody has been busy.
   

In September 326 new voters were added to the rolls of registered voters in Morgan County.
   

In August another 126 new voters were added. Adding the 267 registered voters transferring into Morgan County for the same two months means a total of 719 new faces may be seen at the polls on November 4.
   

That’s roughly seven percent of the total active voters (10,748) in Morgan County.
   

The numbers were released at last week’s monthly meeting of the Morgan County Board of Elections. Morgan County Elections Supervisor Bobby Howington said Tuesday that this year’s registration, across the state, was higher than previous elections. “The state of Georgia has registered hundreds of thousands,” he said.
   

With a highly-contested presidential race looming, several groups across the county have engaged unregistered voters with grassroots registration drives.
   

Compared the same period last year, more than 10 percent more (1,028) people are registered to vote.
   

Of that number, Howington said, 1,016, or again roughly 10 percent of the registered voters in the county, have already voted. Howington said early, advanced voting has kept the office busy for the past few weeks.
   

Howington predicts that before November 4, approximately 25 percent of all registered voters in Morgan County will have taken advantage of early voting.
   

In other Board of Election business the board:
   

• Received a letter from the Secretary of State notifying the board that during the July 15, 2008 General Primary election and the August 5, 2008 run–off there was a violation at a Morgan County polling station.
   

The letter states that at a polling station there was no voter with disability device “attached to at least one of the (voting units).”
   

Howington said the device had been attached but was not plugged into power. He said he had determined the site and ensured that the violation would not occur again.
   

The Secretary of State’s office demaned a “written corrective action plan” from the board and stated that if the violation is not corrected the board will be asked to face the State Elections Board.