Early voting data shows Columbus voters cast twice as many Democratic ballots. Here’s more

Ahead of election day, Muscogee County voters have cast twice as many Democratic ballots as Republican — a trend counter to early voting statewide in the 2022 primaries.

According to data from the county elections board, a total of 10,836 Democratic ballots had been accepted compared to 5,107 Republican ballots as of Friday, the final day of early voting. More than 87% of the Columbus ballots accepted came from early, in-person voting.

Those tallies were part of Georgia’s record-breaking primary turnout.

More than 850,000 Georgians cast a ballot early, representing a 168% increase over the 2018 primary and a 212% increase from the 2020 primary. More than 795,000 of those were cast in-person, according to data from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.

Georgia primary voters cast 483,149 Republican ballots compared to 368,949 Democratic.

What will be on the ballot?

Primaries for statewide races include Georgia governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general, labor commissioner, agriculture commissioner, state school superintendent and secretary of state.

The second and third congressional district races will also appear on Columbus ballots.

Local races and elections include:

TSPLOST- A 1% regional sales tax for transportation projects.

Mayor

• John Anker
• Skip Henderson, incumbent

Columbus Council, District 1

• Jerry “Pops” Barnes, incumbent

Columbus Council, District 3

• Bruce Huff, incumbent

• DeMarco “D1” Johnson

Columbus Council, District 5

• John Adams III

• Charmaine Crabb, incumbent

• Carmella Morales

Columbus Council, District 7

• Laketha Ashe

• Joanne Cogle

• Sia Etamdi

• Juanita Taylor

Columbus Council, District 9 (citywide)

• Doug Redmond

• Carl Sprayberry

• Judy Thomas

• Alyssa Williams

• Vickie Williams Wiley

Muscogee County School Board, District 2

• Sadiyah Abdullah
• Nickie Tillery, incumbent

Muscogee County School Board, District 4

• Naomi Buckner (incumbent)

Muscogee County School Board, District 6

• Mark Cantrell (incumbent)

• Zebulon Harris

Muscogee County School Board, District 8

• Sarah Smith

• Margot Schley

Muscogee County School Board, At-large (countywide)

• Kia Chambers (incumbent)

Georgia State House, District 140

Most Columbus-area state lawmakers are not facing a primary challenge. However, two Democrats are vying to replace Calvin Smyre, who was recently tapped to be U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas.

The candidates are:

• Zeph Baker
• Teddy Reese

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. To find your polling location, visit the Georgia Secretary of State’s My Voter Page.

This story was originally published May 24, 2022 at 5:00 AM.

Nick Wooten

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Nick Wooten is the Accountability/Investigative reporter for the Ledger-Enquirer where he is responsible for covering several topics, including Georgia politics. His work may also appear in the Macon Telegraph. Nick was given the Georgia Press Association’s 2021 Emerging Journalist award for his coverage of elections, COVID-19 and Columbus’ LGBTQ+ community. Before joining McClatchy, he worked for The (Shreveport La.) Times covering city government and investigations. He is a graduate of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.