Turnout for the Nov. 2 referendum on the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax continues to be light with only five days of early voting remaining.
After the 11th day of early voting on Saturday, only 491 of the county’s 32,066 voters–or 1.5 percent--have participated in in-person voting at the Civic Center on Hog Mountain Road west of Butler’s Crossing.
The 10-county Northeast Health District added 631 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Friday, down from 739 a week earlier, and 25 new confirmed deaths from the disease, up from 22 last week.
One of the confirmed deaths was in Oconee County, and one was in Clarke County, as had been the case a week ago.
Both counties also added two “probable” deaths from the disease.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday approved a $1.4 million Capital Outlay Project Application with the Georgia Department of Education for renovations and modifications at three of its schools.
The state Department of Education already has approved the application, and the Board action was necessary to meet the condition of committing Oconee County Schools to spend local matching funds on the projects.
In the first five days of early voting, 177 Oconee County voters have cast a ballot for the Nov. 2 election that has a Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax up for approval.
In the first five days of early voting for the Education Local Option Sales Tax in March, 244 persons had cast a ballot.
The 177 votes cast last week represents less than a percent of the 32,066 eligible to cast a ballot.
The 244 votes case in February represented a slightly larger percentage of the 31,965 eligible voters in that election.
The 10-county Northeast Health District added 739 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Friday, down from 959 a week earlier, and 22 new confirmed deaths from the disease, down from 37 last week.
One of the confirmed deaths was in Oconee County, and one was in Clarke County.
The average number of added cases in the District was 105.6 per day, compared with 137.0 per day in the week ending Oct. 8.
Only 54 voters had cast a ballot at the end of the second day of early voting on Wednesday for the Nov. 2 elections.
Early voting continues from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until Oct. 29 at the Civic Center, 2661 Hog Mountain Road, west of Butler’s Crossing.
Saturday voting, also at the Civic Center, will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 16 and 23.
Oconee County Schools Superintendent Jason Branch, in a brief work session last week, asked the Board of Education to spend $357,408 in federal emergency pandemic relief funds for purchase of 876 additional Chromebook computers.
The new computers will be distributed to new students and will be used as loaners during repairs of already issued devices, according to the request.
