As Election Day commenced, 3,406 Gilmer County voters didn’t have to worry about setting time aside for the Tuesday, May 24, primary. That many had already voted early in person, according to the Gilmer Registrar’s Office.
“We couldn’t ask for better in early voting. People really came in the last week. They really showed up,” said Chief Registrar Tammy Watkins.
According to Capitol Beat News Service, Georgia voters set an all-time early voting high for the 2022 primary with more than 850,000 either voting early in person or returning an absentee ballot.
The last day for in-person early voting was Friday, May 20, but the registrar’s office still saw a few voters come in the following Monday who were unaware of that deadline, noted Watkins.
In Gilmer County, the 2022 primary election drew more in-person early voting than the 2018 and 2020 primaries, although 2020 was a year unlike any other.
In the 2018 primary, 1,226 voted early in person, and 1,497 voted early in person for the 2020 primary, according to the registrar’s office.
As of Monday afternoon, the registrar’s office had accepted 281 of 313 mailed absentee ballots for the 2022 primary. Absentee ballot holders still had till 7 p.m. on Tuesday to return their ballots.
This year, the number of absentee ballots paled in comparison to 2020, when more than 4,000 absentee ballots were accepted by the local registrar’s office.
Primary election results were not available until after the Times-Courier went to press on Tuesday. The registrars office noted that a runoff or runoffs were likely to result, particularly in some of the state races, due to the number of candidates running.
On the Republican ballot, five candidates vied for Georgia governor, including incumbent Brian Kemp; six for U.S. Senate and five for District 9 Representative, including incumbent Andrew Clyde. Four ran for lieutenant governor and four for secretary of state, including incumbent Brad Raffensperger.
On the Democratic ballot, nine candidates vied for lieutenant governor, four for state school superintendent and five each for secretary of state and labor commissioner.
In local races, three candidates ran for Post Two county commissioner, while two each vied for District 4 and 5 school board seats.
As local polling places were being set up Monday, Watkins said, so far, everything had gone smoothly in preparing for the primary.
“Everything has gone better than I expected for it to be our first election since 2020,” she added.
Although early voting numbers were up this year, many local residents still prefer visiting their polling place to vote on Election Day, confirmed Andy Broughton, a poll worker at the Ellijay Northeast precinct.
“This is the day (for them),” he said Tuesday.
The Times-Courier plans to include results for the local primary races in next week’s newspaper.