Columbus averaging 110 ballots daily as early runoff voting hits final week

Maybe the turnout for our July 24 runoffs won’t be too bad, for a low-race election in the dead heat of summer.

As Georgia’s early voting heads into the final week, Columbus so far has been averaging around 110 ballots a day, since the midtown poll opened Mondaythrough Friday on July 2, taking a day off July 4.

As of Friday, 986 early votes had been cast.

Most of the ballots cast were Republican, maybe because of the well-advertised race between Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp, each vying for the nomination for governor.

Republican voters are averaging about 65 a day at the poll in the Community Room of the City Services Center at 3111 Citizens Way, off Macon Road by the Columbus Public Library.

Also on the Republican ballot are runoffs in these races:

▪ Geoff Duncan and David Shafer are vying to be the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor.

▪ David Belle Isle and Brad Raffensperger are competing to be the nominee for secretary of state.

Compare the Republicans’ turnout to the Democrats’, and it appears their runoff for state school superintendent, between Sid Chapman and Otha E. Thornton II, isn’t packing in the partisans.

Democratic ballots are running around 40 a day.

The number of voters picking nonpartisan ballots has been negligible, averaging five a day.

Columbus has nonpartisan runoffs between Amy Bryan and John House for citywide Columbus Council Post 10, and between Mike Edmondson and Bart Steed for District 2 on the Muscogee County school board, the seat John Thomas is leaving.

Nonpartisan races are on all the ballots, so no one should think you need a nonpartisan ballot to vote in those.

Sometimes people expect every race they’ve heard of to be on their ballot, and they get ticked when one is not, either because it’s on the other party’s ballot or they don’t live in the district represented.

So folks should remember that if they don’t live in school board District 2, then that runoff won’t be on their ballot, not even if their neighbors who also don’t live in that district have yard signs for one of those candidates.

Through Friday the early voting poll’s open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Voters should remember to bring a government-issued photo ID.

Also they should remember the runoff rules for picking a partisan ballot:

▪ People who chose a Democratic ballot in the May 22 primary can’t vote in the Republican runoff, and voters who chose a Republican ballot can’t vote in the Democratic runoff.

▪ Anyone who got only a nonpartisan ballot May 22 can vote in either party’s runoff, and so can anyone who was eligible to vote then, but did not.

Because Council Post 10 is a citywide position – the one Mayor-elect Skip Henderson held – all city voting precincts will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, July 24.

Any Georgian registered to vote can see sample ballots at the Georgia Secretary of State’s “My Voter Page,”www.mvp.sos.ga.gov.

The local nonpartisan races end July 24. The party nominees go on to the General Election on Nov. 6. The deadline to register for that is Oct. 9, and early voting starts Oct. 15.

Added to that ballot now is a special election for Muscogee Superior Court Clerk, between Danielle Forte and Shasta Glover. Forte is a prosecutor, and Glover moved up to court clerk upon the death of Ann Hardman. Qualifying for that race was June 25-29.

With early voting in its final stretch, people should remember that because these summer runoffs typically don’t drive droves to the polls on Election Day, the margin of victory could be tight.

So the early vote could make all the difference, in the end.

This story was originally published July 13, 2018 at 5:40 PM.