Precincts were reporting around 100 voters an hour at the polls today in Catoosa County. By 11:30 p.m., 395 residents had cast their vote at Constitution Hall in Fort Oglethorpe and by 1 p.m., around 600 votes had been entered at Catoosa Hall in Ringgold.

Priscilla Johnson, election manager at Fort Oglethorpe, said there was a good bit of confusion after the recent county redistricting that had taken place, with many folks having to be redirected to another voting precint, but other than that, the turnout was high and steady. She said the presidential race was always a huge draw.

"We've had many, many people out voting who have never voted before," Johnson said. "A lot of handicapped, senior citizens and a lot of younger people are coming to vote."

Of the 41,328 registered voters in Catoosa, about 28% (12,659) took advantage of early voting. Ron McKelvy, voting official at Ringgold said early voting was actually down from 2008 (13,722 voted early), but he suggested the drop was pos-sibly due to the decrease in early voting days. Laws recently reduced available early days from 45 to 21.

Voting managers are predicting between 65-70% of regis-tered voters will end up casting ballots by the 7 p.m. dead-line.