Elections of the past hold many good memories

  • Fannin County Board of Elections staff are shown with a pile of voting related papers in 2004, the year of the big roll out of the touch screen voting units. Shown, from left, are Susan Byrum, Mary Ann Conner, Morris Queen, Lena Earley, Samantha Hill, Rachel Gray, Dorothy Davis, Cheryl Burns, Evelyn Panter and Jammia Duvall.
    Fannin County Board of Elections staff are shown with a pile of voting related papers in 2004, the year of the big roll out of the touch screen voting units. Shown, from left, are Susan Byrum, Mary Ann Conner, Morris Queen, Lena Earley, Samantha Hill, Rachel Gray, Dorothy Davis, Cheryl Burns, Evelyn Panter and Jammia Duvall.
  • Blake Collins, Mary McDonald, Evelyn Panter, Winfred Cruse, Jammia Duvall, George Earley and Bill McDonald are shown, from left, working on an election day in Fannin County.
    Blake Collins, Mary McDonald, Evelyn Panter, Winfred Cruse, Jammia Duvall, George Earley and Bill McDonald are shown, from left, working on an election day in Fannin County.
  • In the 1990s townsfolk would gather in the old courthouse, which acted as one of the voting precincts, and wait for election results to be announced.
    In the 1990s townsfolk would gather in the old courthouse, which acted as one of the voting precincts, and wait for election results to be announced.

    These days folks primarily cast their ballots electronically, sending their choice for various political offices through time and space instantly. 

    Voters today also have the ability to vote early “for no reason at all” and can look up their own voting information as well as register to vote online with virtually next-day turnaround time, according to Mary Ann Conner, vice chairman of the Fannin County Board of Elections.

    But the procedures of today weren’t always so. Conner worked as a poll worker in the Toccoa Precinct from the 1990s through 2002. She said she’ll always remember how at 7 a.m. on election day, at the old courthouse, a man by the name of Clyde Baily would walk out onto the porch and call out, “Hear ye, hear ye the polls are now open.” Voters would then file in and line up along the wall awaiting their turn to cast their ballots.

     At 7 p.m., Baily would walk outside again and declare the polls closed. “And, of course, at that time the lobby and the yard was usually filled with people anxiously awaiting the results,” Conner said. “As soon as he returned to the large courtroom the benches quickly filled up. I have often thought that if those trees around the building could talk what wonderful stories they could tell.”

    The election days of old meant long days and nights for the election office staff and board members. After the polls were closed, staff members then had to open all the ballots. “We had boxes of ballots stacked in the vault, and it took until the wee hours of the morning to get them all opened and ready to scan,” Conner said.

    In 2002 Conner transitioned to the Registration and Election Office when there was a petition to pull registration cards to verify signatures before refiling them all. “I always loved being a poll worker and being around people,” Conner said. “And, working in elections you either love it or hate it, and if you hate it you are in the wrong place. I absolutely love working here. The excitement of elections is awesome and what makes it so great is the voters we have, they are the best of the best.”

    Conner also remembers the “big roll-out” of touch screen voting machines in 2004. “A lot of voters were excited about them and thought they were really easy to vote on,” she said.

    Lena Earley, past chairman of the Fannin County Democratic Party and past Board of Elections employee, said of elections today, “We have good people working the polls, they’re trained. We have a good crew up there right now.”

    Conner summed it up saying, “Elections of the past hold many good memories and some not so good. Just like today’s elections. Who knows in 20 more years what elections will be like. We can look back on the elections we are holding now and reminisce and maybe get a smile or a laugh.”