The election staff is on duty and can be reached by phone as the district offices will remain closed until Friday

Monday, Oct. 7, is the deadline for Georgia residents to register to vote — if they are not already registered — or update their voter information before the Nov. 5 general election. But after the week-long closure of Bulloch County administrative offices due to Hurricane Helene, Monday is also the first day the county election office is scheduled to open.

However, a call late Wednesday morning to the Board of Elections and Registration at 912-764-6502 was immediately returned. Elections director Shontay Jones said that although the doors to the office were locked, staff opened the door to a few people who knocked to register voters.

She urged voters to call first, but said the office should also be available by phone on Thursday and Friday.

A limited number of staff will be on site to prepare absentee ballots for mailing, as Monday is also the first day election officials can legally mail them, and the Bulloch County office has already received nearly 1,000 absentee ballot applications.

“We deal with constituents calling us, and we have an opt-out feature if they need to knock on our door,” Jones said. “We actually served several voters this morning. The thing for us was that we knew that some voters were out of power, that other offices were closed, and that we had to start casting mail-in ballots by Monday. That’s why we felt like we had to go ahead and intervene.”

But the internet connection to the office remained “a little shaky” on Wednesday and she thought it wasn't safe to actually open the office while the other offices were closed, she added.

On Monday, Oct. 7, the Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration office at the County Annex, 113 N. Main St., Suite 201, Statesboro, is expected to be open during its regular hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., along with the remaining county offices . Would-be voters who reside in Bulloch County will then have until close of business to register in person or update their registration, such as for address changes.

Georgia residents can also check their registration and register to vote or update their registration online at the statewide My Voter page https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/. 7.

The deadline for requesting a postal vote is October 25th. The first day of the three-week early in-person voting opportunity is Tuesday, October 15th.

Helene announcement from the district