SOPERTON, Ga. — Early voting is on the minds of many in Treutlen County.
Despite the county still recovering from Helene damage, their election superintendent, Sharon Sellars, said they are seeing a record-high turnout.
"I'm proud that they're open today because I work and when I get home from work, I'm tired,” she said. “I want my voice to count, my vote to count, so this is really a very, very good day to go vote."
Sellars, who hasn't let the hurricane damage deter her, said she's voting on a Saturday because it's more convenient for her than a weekday. However, she's not the only voter who feels this way.
"I don't want to be in a crowd,” Melanie Hutcheson said. “I wanted to go ahead and get it done and so I can just sit there and wait and see what it's going to be, what the election turns out to be like."
Election Superintendent Tiffany McLendon said over 50 people came out for the first Saturday voting day and that number continued to grow every hour.
"Since we started Tuesday, they've averaged 150 a day there about,” she said. “So that's outstanding for a small town like us."
McLendon said Treutlen County has just over 4,000 registered voters. As of Saturday afternoon, almost 650 people have already voted.
McLendon said because of the remaining storm damage, the county did not expect to see this many people ready to vote until closer to the election. She said the last day of early voting at the Treutlen County Annex Building is Nov. 1. While many have attempted to move on from the damages, some voters said their minds are still on recovering from Helene.
"I'm just getting water back,” Sellars said. “We just got our power back. So, I'm very happy about that."
Hutcheson said that while she feels like Soperton is still recovering from Helene, the election has brought back a sense of normalcy.
"The election, that's a big deal,” she said. “Everybody's talking about it, but I think for us, for this small community, we're just trying to get back to normal."