And you thought election season was over.

Early voting begins Monday in Hall County for the Dec. 2 runoff election in three statewide races.

Early and advance voting will be available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Nov. 26 at the Hall County Elections and Registration Office at 2285 Browns Bridge Road. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the elections office will be closed Nov. 27-28.

Charlotte Sosebee-Hunter, Hall County’s interim elections director, said even those registered voters who didn’t participate in the Nov. 4 general election can cast ballots in the Dec. 2 runoff.

But don’t expect lines to form for this election.

Sosebee-Hunter said she’s only expecting about a third of Hall County’s registered voters to participate, with 20 percent turnout predicted ahead of Dec. 2.

On Dec. 2, all 39 Hall County voting precincts will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sosebee-Hunter said. Holding the runoff election will cost Hall County from $34,000 to $42,000, but she said the cost of runoff elections already is budgeted every election year.

Those who wish to get a paper absentee ballot to mail in — which must be post-marked by Dec. 2 — are urged to do so as soon as possible, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Web site.

Here are the races voters have to consider:

• U.S. senator, between the incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic challenger, Jim Martin;
• Georgia State Appeals Court, between Sara Doyle and Mike Sheffield in a nonpartisan race;
• Georgia Public Service Commission, Northern District between Republican Lauren W. McDonald Jr. and Democrat Jim Powell.

The U.S. Senate race has been watched closely across the nation and has drawn help from the presidential campaigns of Democratic President-elect Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, who has made appearances in Georgia on behalf of Chambliss. Chambliss ended up with 49.8 percent to Martin’s 46.8 percent in the Nov. 4 general election, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Web site.

The outcome of the race could either add to the seats the Democrats gained in the U.S. Senate, or could help Republicans prevent the Democrats from earning a "super majority."

The margin was much closer in the PSC race; Powell ended up with 47.9 percent to McDonald’s 47.2 percent in the Nov. 4 general election.

A field of seven candidates in the nonpartisan appeals judge race spread the votes out, with Doyle the top vote-getter at 22.5 percent of the vote to Sheffield’s 20.9 percent.

There are no local races with runoff elections in Hall County, but there are two in neighboring Lumpkin County. There, two nonpartisan races that each drew a field of four candidates will be voted upon in the Dec. 2 runoff. Incumbent Stroud Stacy faces challenger Susan L. Sockwell for the District 1 seat on the Lumpkin County board of education. In the Dahlonega City Council race, Ralph Prescott faces John P. Webb.

In Lumpkin, voting ahead of the Dec. 2 runoff will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 24-26 at the Mountain Education Center, 123 Mountain View Drive, Room 523, in Dahlonega.