COVINGTON, Ga. — Voters in six Newton County precincts will be traveling to new locations on Election Day this year.

The Newton County Board of Elections voted Monday, Feb. 14, to approve the relocation of five voting locations, and voted for a resolution proposing to move a sixth for the 2022 elections — beginning with the May 24 primaries.

The board voted to move the voting locations in the following precincts:

• Almon — from Almon Community House to Newton Baptist Church at 720 Jack Neely Road in Covington.

• Livingston — from County Line Baptist Church to Canaan Baptist Church at 5581 Salem Road in Covington.

• Town — from Washington Street Community Center to Turner Lake Senior Center at 6185 Turner Lake Road in Covington.

• Gum Creek — from Gum Creek Precinct Building to Church Covington at 11975 Hwy. 142 in Oxford.

• Crowell — from The Potter’s House to Salem United Methodist Church at 3962 Salem Road in Covington.

It also is proposing to move the Hub precinct voting location from Berean Baptist Church to Crossroad Baptist Church at 227 Hwy. 229 in Social Circle and likely will approve the change at its March 14 meeting.

Board Chairman Phil Johnson said the election office was thankful for churches willing to provide voting locations because other locations either were unavailable or unwilling to participate.

“These facilities — it’s a real sacrifice for them to let us  in,” Johnson said. 

He said the voting location changes were needed for a variety of reasons, including more parking and more space inside for voting.

“These are vastly superior facilities,” Johnson said. “These will be good moves.”

Some church officials said they did not want to participate because the fee the election office pays does not cover the cost of utilities and other expenses involved in being open to the public on a non-Sunday, Johnson said.

Meanwhile, longtime voting location Washington Street Community Center is undergoing an extensive renovation and was unavailable, Johnson said.

Officials and voters had complained about lack of space and parking at previous locations, such as Porter Memorial Library, officials had said.

Meanwhile, election director Angela White-Davis said early voting locations for the primaries in 2022 will be Good Shepherd Episcopal Church at 4140 Clark St SW in Covington and Prospect United Methodist Church at 6752 Hwy. 212 in Covington.

Saturday voting during the early voting period is scheduled for May 7 and 14 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The board still must determine a Sunday early voting date, Davis said.

The Newton County Democratic and Republican parties will qualify local candidates in partisan races for county commission and school board March 7-11, she said.

Newton County has 85,745 registered voters on Feb. 1, of which 79,518 were active voters and 6,214 inactive, Davis said.

Election Day for the party primaries is May 24 from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. at Newton County’s 22 precincts.