Gilmer County’s early voting and Election Day turnouts for the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff were two more record breakers in an already noteworthy election season.
For the one-week early voting period that preceded the Dec. 6 election, 5,360 voted early in person, and the registrar’s office accepted 728 absentee ballots.
“This was great for a runoff, and for a week (of early voting), it was remarkable. It broke every record we’ve had for a runoff,” said Tammy Watkins, chief registrar.
About lines during early voting, Watkins said, “the longest anyone told us that they waited was 20 minutes. Sometimes we had five check-in stations going. If we didn’t have that many, there would’ve been (more) lines.”
On Election Day, 6,646 votes were cast at local precincts. Herschel Walker (R) easily carried Gilmer County, receiving a total of 10,391 votes between Election Day and early voting, while incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) garnered a total of 2,352 votes in the county.
In all, 56.41 percent of the county’s 22,606 voters participated in runoff voting, according to the official runoff results.
“Overall, it was a wonderful turnout,” said Watkins.
Several of the county’s precincts saw more than half their total number of registered voters cast ballots in the election.
For example, the East Ellijay precinct, which has 1,738 registered voters, saw a 57.65 percent turnout between Election Day and early voting.
At the East Ellijay City Hall polling place, more than 250 had already voted by 3 p.m. on Election Day.
Kathryn Watkins, East Ellijay poll manager, noted how strong a turnout that was with several hours remaining before the polls were to close. The precinct has seen voter turnouts of around 100 for some past runoff elections, she noted.
Early voting for District 7 special election
Registered voters in Gilmer, Fannin and a small area of Dawson County have one more early voting opportunity before this year ends — the special election for District 7 state house representative.
Early voting for that special election started Monday, Dec. 12. The first week of early voting will end Dec. 17, while the next two will be Dec. 19-22 and Dec. 27-30.
Christmas holidays will take two weekdays off of the three-week early voting period, but there will be one Saturday (Dec. 17), in which early voting can be done, confirmed Watkins.
Times are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. all days at the Gilmer County Registrar’s Office, 1 Broad Street, Suite 107.
Election Day for the special election to fill the state house seat previously held by the late David Ralston is Tuesday, Jan. 3.
A total of five candidates have qualified for the District 7 election, and all five reside in either Fannin or Gilmer County, confirmed Watkins.
A sample ballot for the special election appears in this week’s newspaper.