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Voter registration ends Monday
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The July 31 primary is only a few weeks away, but Bryan County residents still have a little time left to register to cast their vote on Election Day.
Monday is the official deadline to register, and voter registration forms must be submitted or postmarked by the end of business, according to Bryan County Chief Registrar Warren Miller.
Registration forms can be found at the Voter Registration Office at the county courthouse in Pembroke, or the county administrative building in Richmond Hill. City halls and public libraries in both Pembroke and Richmond Hill also have forms, Miller said.
He encouraged residents who plan to mail their registration forms to request the envelope be postmarked on Monday because the post office doesn’t necessarily have to postmark it for that day, he said.
Forms are also available on the Secretary of State’s website. There, not only can residents get information about registering to vote, but by visiting the My Voter Page, they can also check their voter status, precincts and view a sample ballot, he said.
“The new precinct cards went out, but there has been a massive change (in precincts) because of the census,” Miller said. “The Board of Education and county commissioners drew new district lines, so there is a good possibility (voters will) be going to a different precinct polling place. They might want to check on that ahead of time.”
Miller estimated there are about 21,000 registered voters in Bryan County, with about 72 percent of voters in South Bryan and 28 percent of voters in North Bryan. He said the Voter Registration Office has seen a spike in registrations.
“The last couple of weeks or so it has been a little heavier because of the primary and local people — that generates more involvement,” he said.
Anyone registering to vote must show proof of U.S. citizenship, residency of Georgia and residency in the county in which they wish to cast a ballot. Those registering also must be at least 17 and a half years old but 18 to vote.
Those serving a sentence for conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude and those who have been found mentally incompetent by a judge may not register.
Forms can be dropped off at the County Administrative Complex in Richmond Hill or at the Voter Registration Office in Pembroke. Residents can also mail the forms to the Voter Registration Office at P.O. Box 1526, Pembroke, Ga., 31321, or to the Secretary of State’s office at Elections Division, 802 Floyd West Tower, 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. SE, Atlanta, Ga. 30334
For more information, visit the Secretary of State’s website at www.sos.state.ga.us, or call the Voter Registration Office at 653-3859.

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Later yall, its been fun
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This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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