Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Early voting is coming to Hogansville and West Point for the November election.

On Tuesday, the Troup County Board of Commissioners signed off on separate agreements with both cities to provide early voting services the week before the election.

Early voting in both cities will be available on weekdays from Oct. 25 through Nov. 1 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and on Saturday, Oct. 26 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Early voting in Hogansville will be held at the City Annex Building across from the post office at 600 E. Main Street.

Early voting in West Point will be held at the Technology Center at 1122 O G Skinner Drive.

Both city councils chose to pay for the extra early voting locations to help their citizens avoid having to drive to LaGrange to vote before Election Day. Registered voters throughout the county, including citizens of Hogansville and West Point, can vote early at the Troup County Government Center in LaGrange.

Election Supervisor Andy Harper said all three cities contract with the county to hold their elections. He said extra early voting locations outside of the courthouse were not budgeted, so the cities chose to pay for them at a cost of approximately $7,000 per day.

The cost is primarily labor for the workers they have to pay to operate the polls. It takes a minimum of four workers or sometimes five if it’s busy, Harper said.

The county is not required to provide early voting locations beyond a single location, Harper added.

Commissioner Lewis Davis noted that unlike Hogansville and West Point, the City of LaGrange does not need to pay for early voting because the courthouse is in LaGrange.

“The cities could run their own elections if they chose to,” Commission Chairman Patrick Crews said. “They could choose to do that, but they choose to let the county run their elections. We have a contract with them to conduct their elections and we set prices for certain things that they might want that go above the normal like early voting.”

“West Point does three weeks of early voting for city elections anyway,” Harper said. “Hogansville does not.”

 County Manager Eric Mosley noted that the county has chosen to lengthen hours for early voting at the courthouse.

“Our location will be Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and then on Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for three weeks,” Harper said.