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CAPTION: Livingston County voting headquarters remained busy on the final weekend before Election Day. Livingston County Clerk Kelly Christopher said that 124 people cast their ballots on Saturday, pushing aside the previous record of absentee ballots cast in 2004. As of 10 a.m. today (Monday) the clerk’s office had counted more than 800 absentee ballots.

C-T photo/ Catherine Stortz-Ripley

A new absentee ballot record has been set in Livingston County. Although the numbers are not yet final as absentee voting continues, election authority Kelly Christopher reports that more than 800 voters have already cast ballots for Tuesday’s general election.

A big wave of voters came in during special hours Saturday at the Livingston County courthouse. Within four hours, 124 people had voted absentee. More voters were casting ballots today. “This will be the most (absentee ballot total) that I have on record,” Christopher said, noting that her records go back to 1972. The last absentee ballot record of 690 was set four years ago.

Christopher said absentee ballots will be cast today in her office until 5 p.m., and absentee ballots sent by mail must be received by tomorrow (Tuesday) in order to be counted. “We’ve been very busy today (Monday),” Christopher said. The polls open tomorrow at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Christopher said those in line to vote at 7 p.m. will still be allowed to cast ballots. Christopher also advised voters in the 2nd Ward will now cast ballots at Turning Point Church (formerly Bethel Assembly of God Church) on north U.S. 65 Highway.

Christopher is predicting a 75 percent voter turnout, most likely due to the interest in the presidential election. There has also been a notable increase of walk-in traffic at the Livingston County clerk's office this year and Christopher says the county now has 9,594 registered voters - the most the county has had in about 20 years.

Just since the primary election on Aug. 5, there has been 334 new voter registrations, which is a 3.4 percent increase, according to Christopher. She added that since Jan. 1, there's been an increase of 8.7 percent in new voter registrations for the county. As well as handling voter registrations, the clerk's office has been busy with 2,259 name and/or address changes since the primary. Christopher said that since January, there's been a total of 4,333 name and/or address changes in voter registrations.