Sunday voting opens in DeKalb County

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — It's the first Sunday voters can go to the polls in one metro county and many went straight from church for early voting ahead of the November election.

The first voters showed up around 11 a.m. to wait until the doors opened at noon.

Three sites are open for early voting in DeKalb County, for the first time on a Sunday.

DeKalb was the first county in Georgia to approve Sunday voting.

Many churches planned to bring hundreds of people out to vote.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter spoke to the Piney Grove Baptist Church on Glenwood Avenue Sunday morning.

After the service, she planned to caravan with parishioners to the early voting site in south DeKalb. The group planned to use a full-size bus and two other smaller vans to get what they called “Souls to the Polls.” Unfortunately, plans changed when the bus carrying Carter and several parishioners broke down. A different bus took some parishioners and Carter left to vote at another time.

We spoke with DeKalb County’s election director about the first chance to vote on a Sunday.

"We really don't know what to expect yet. We know that there are several churches that are talking about having campaigns to bring people out. There are discussions about bussing people and so we're excited about any opportunity to allow people to cast their ballot,” said Maxine Daniels.

The early voting sites are open until 5 p.m. in DeKalb. Fulton County’s polls are also open for the second Sunday in a row.

In DeKalb County, open sites include south DeKalb Mall, the voter registration and elections office on Memorial Drive in Decatur and in North DeKalb at the Chamblee Civic Center on Broad Street. The site at the Rec Center in Tucker is not open Sunday.

There will be no early voting next weekend right before Election Day on Tuesday Nov. 4.

WSBTV