MACON, Ga. — Polls are closed and early voting has officially ended in Georgia.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has called this year's early voting surge historic, topping previous election years. State election data reports as of 5 p.m. Friday, more than 3.9 million people voted in-person or by mail before election day. That's over half of registered voters.
Virginia Gallemore, a Bibb County poll worker, said she's assisted in elections since 2013, adding she noticed the amount of early voters dropped off in the final week.
"This week has been a little slow but overall it's been steady and I'm glad to see citizens come out and exercise their right to vote," she said.
Gallemore said the early voting schedule keeps poll officials and volunteers busy.
"We've only had one weekend off so it's continuous and it can be challenging and taxing and then it wears on the body too," Gallemore said. "But I'm glad the turnout has been great."
Larry Brown was one of many voters to vote at Gallemore's precinct on the final day of early voting.
Brown says he relied on absentee ballots in previous elections but Friday he had time to stop by the polls and bank his vote in person.
"My schedule was changing and I realized this was the last day and also I found out that since I'm (older) than 75, it made it easy to come here and go in and not be in a long line," Brown said. "My wife has early dementia. She wants to vote and so I wanted to come through and see how that might work, so the ladies in here were very, very helpful."
He said securing their votes is important and he encourages others to do the same.
"Today is the last day to early vote, but vote," Brown said. "In other words, we need everybody's opinion in order to make it successful."
Now Gallemore and other election workers are beginning election day preparations. She said she's looking forward to getting some rest but enjoys giving her time to the election process.
"I would do it all over again, because it's just that important to me, and the takedown process is sort of like a relief in one sense, because we're now getting ready for election day," Gallemore said.
She says they'll set up equipment on Monday and finish before polls open Tuesday morning.