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Bring your own mask: Election Day is June 9
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Bryan County Elections Superintendent Cindy Reynolds hopes residents who wait to vote until Election Day on June 9 do two things.

First, voters should go online to My Voter Page at www.mvp.sos.ga.gov and check out the ballots. That will tell voters what they’re voting for and where their precincts are, if they’re uncertain.

Second, voters should bring their own mask, and “please wear it,” Reynolds said.

She, like other elections officials, expect long lines due to Centers for Disease Control recommendations on social distancing and sanitation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, state elections officials hope voters with absentee ballots cast those instead and stay at home on Tuesday.

Sharyl Sutton, a voter education coordinator for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, said Monday “we continue to encourage voters to cast an absentee ballots for the June 9 general primary election,” and voters have until 7 p.m. to drop those ballots off at county drop boxes in Richmond Hill and Pembroke.

Sutton said voters who asked for absentee ballots but then decided to vote at the polls have to bring the ballots with them when they vote, so the absentee ballots can be canceled. That can take 15-20 minutes per voters, she said.

“Poll workers are also sanitizing machines, voter cards and other surfaces to ensure the safest environment for the public,” Sutton added.

Voters should also have a valid photo ID.

This marks the first time the state is using its the new paper- ballot system, and voters should remember to review their selections, print their ballot at their individual voting stations, and finally, cast their paper ballot in the scanner before leaving, elections officials say.

So far, 1,227 people have voted in person in Richmond Hill and Pembroke, and 3,190 residents have mailed in absentee ballots, Reynolds said.

While voters can still vote in person through Friday at the Richmond Hill Recreation Department gym on Timber Trail, all the county’s precincts are expected to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on election day at all of the county’s precincts.

OF NOTE: The only contested race in Bryan County is that in the Republican primary for sheriff, where five candidates are vying to face Democrat Al Hagan in November.

The candidates are former sheriff ’s deputy and Pembroke police chief Mark Crowe; retired GBI agent and retired Army officer Mike Fordham; Army veteran and former BCSO captain Mike Maxwell; former firefighter and Richmond Hill Police Department detective Doug Sahlberg; and former Richmond Hill Police Officer Keith Welch.

Hagan is retired from the GBI and also owns his own polygraph business.

There are a couple of state and national races with candidates in both the Republican and Democratic primary, as well.

Candidates for a number of county and school board offices are running unopposed in the primary and won’t have opposition in the general election.

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