Advance voting for the general election began on Oct. 15 at six polling locations within Fulton County, two of those located within the south Fulton area.

According to Interim Director of Registration and Elections Sharon Mitchell, advance voting is off to a steady start.

“Starting out on Monday, we had prepped for a large crowd,” she said. “We are pleased at what we are seeing with performance. We believe that changes in processing and staff levels are working for us in terms of our county.”

The changes Mitchell referred to included ensuring that wait times are less than 30 minutes, relocating the voting process to other rooms with adequate space and staffing the polls with enough personnel.

Thus far, voting throughout Fulton County has been rather robust.

“In comparison to 2008, for each day, we have seen three times more people,” Mitchell said. “On the first day of advance voting in 2008, we had 1,486 people. This year, we had 4,570.”

Number of voters is not the only aspect of early voting that has changed. There are now more voting hours, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and twice as many voting locations versus the three for 2008.

No major issues were reported in any of the locations for the first week of advance voting.

“Nothing has affected the overall process,” Mitchell said. “We did have a few wait time issues where it exceeded what we wanted but we responded accordingly.”

Early voting will continue through Nov. 2.

South Fulton residents can vote early at the South Service Center, 5600 Stonewall Tell Road in Atlanta, and Adamsville Recreation Center, 3201 Martin Luther King Jr Drive SW in Atlanta.

Hours for the polls are in effect Monday through Friday.

Information: www.fultonelections.com.