Early Voting Strong For Runoffs, But Not At Level Of Nov. 3 Races

Nearly six in 10 of Oconee County’s active voters already had cast a ballot in the Jan. 5 runoff elections at the end of early voting on Thursday.

In the 12 days of early voting itself, 13,477 voters had gone to the Civic Center to select candidates in the two U.S. Senate runoff races and the state Public Service Commission runoff.

In addition, 4,040 had returned an absentee ballot, for a total of 17,517 votes cast, or 57.4 percent of the county’s 30,542 active voters or 54.8 percent of the county’s 31,985 registered voters.

More absentee ballots likely will have been dropped in the secure box in front of the Board of Elections and Registration at 10 Court Street, opposite the Courthouse in Watkinsville, when the office opens on Monday, and others likely will be returned by mail before the 7 p.m. deadline on Tuesday.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday for in-person voting, and voters are to go to the polling places used in the Nov. 3 election to cast a ballot.

While the number of voters who have returned a ballot already suggests turnout will be high, it also suggests turnout will be lower than for the November election.

At the end of early voting for the Nov. 3 election, 15,972 voters had participated in early in-person voting, and 5,516 had returned an absentee ballot, for a total of 19,154 votes cast. That is 1,637 more than had cast a ballot at the end of the day on Thursday.

Those 19,154 voters in November represented 63.8 percent of the county’s then 30,033 active voters or 60.6 percent of the total registered voters at that time, compared with the 57.4 and 54.8 percent figures respectively on Thursday.

For details on this story, please go to Oconee County Observations.