Early voting for the December 2 General Election runoff started Monday, Chief Registrar Gladys Reese said, and will continue through Friday.

Advance voting for the runoff will be Monday, November 24, through Wednesday, Novmber 26, 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., at the Wilkes County courthouse. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be no voting November 27 or 28.

"Absentee ballots for military, elderly, and disabled will be sent out as soon as the ballots are received," Reese said. "Please contact this office if you are not sure if your application for July or November was properly marked for you to receive a ballot for this runoff."

Wilkes County voters are returning to the polls December 2 to complete the 2008 election, Supervisor of Elections Judge Jim Burton said, by voting in the run-off election for Wilkes Probate Judge and for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

In the seven-candidate Wilkes Probate Judge race, the runoff is between Kimberly Rainey, who got 26.96 percent of the vote, and Thomas Charping, with 22.95 percent. County and state elections require a majority - 50 percent plus one - to win.

The U.S. Senate race will also face a runoff, as incumbent Republican senator Saxby Chambliss came up just short of winning a majority, taking 49.8% to Democratic challenger Jim Martin's 47%.

Election officials hope that the hotly contested U.S. Senate race will bring out voters to vote in the Wilkes Probate judgeship runoff. A record 82.37 percent of Wilkes voters cast ballots in the November election, nearly evenly divided between early voting and election day voting.

Polls open at 7 a.m. December 2 and close at 7 p.m.