Local & State Headlines

Turnout ’disappointing’

• Low voter turnout impacts the final outcome of the Republican and Democratic primaries in Dougherty County.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — It turns out that in this election that new state Sen. Freddie Powell Sims called “pivotal” to Southwest Georgia, only 38.6 percent of the registered voters in Dougherty County made their way to the polls.

A total of 17,757 voters cast ballots in races that determined who would become the county’s new sheriff, state Senator and district attorney; who would hold two school board seats, and whether a county commissioner and the current coroner would maintain their positions.

“I don’t know how our totals stacked up against the state’s, but I do want to thank the people who did vote and all the poll workers who took part in the election,” county Board of Registration and Elections Supervisor Carolyn Hatcher said Wednesday morning. “Whether there’s one voter or 1,000, our poll workers are there at the precincts all day.

“That being said, I am disappointed that there wasn’t a better turnout in the county. The presidential election is important, but there were a number of local races that touch our lives on a daily basis ... state house, state senate, sheriff, district attorney. A low turnout is always disappointing.”

Dougherty County has 45,973 registered voters in its 28 districts.

The election was exciting if nothing else, as the two school board races and the three-way sheriff’s race went to the wire befor being decided. Incumbent Republican District 1 school board member David Maschke held off the challenge of newcomer Laura Calhoun by a total of 33 votes, while Anita Williams-Brown outpolled Tommy Langstaff in the Democratic at-large school board race by a trim 177 votes.

Kevin Sproul, meanwhile, escaped a runoff with James Williams in the three-way sheriff’s race, claiming 52.4 percent of the vote to Williams’ 41.2 percent and Benita Childs’ 6.4. Those totals rendered moot newspaper publisher Art Searles’ claim that Childs’ participation in the race was perpetrated by the “white power structure” to deny Williams the election.

Even with all 1,051 of Childs’ votes, Williams would have lost the election.

Many wondered with three such close races if any of the candidates would ask for a recount, but Hatcher said no candidate qualified.

“In order to request a recount, vote totals must fall within 1 percent of the total vote,” Hatcher said. “None of them qualified, although the school board races were close.”

Maschke outpolled Calhoun 52.8-47.2 percent, while Williams-Brown’s total was 50.6 percent of the vote to Langstaff’s 49.4 percent.

Election followers and media representatives had to wait longer than usual to get final election results, but Hatcher said a problem at one of the precincts resulted in a longer-than-usual delay.

“There was a problem with a memory card at the Beattie Road precinct,” she said. “There was no possibility for any of the votes to be altered, but one of the memory cards was accidentally missing from the final vote count. We had to retrieve the card; it was just one of those accidents that happens sometimes.

“Our workers did not report a single problem with photo IDs; the only problem we really had was the one we always have: People showed up to vote at precincts where they weren’t registered. We always encourage people to check beforehand if they’ve moved recently to make sure their information has been transferred. They get angry with us if we tell them they’re not on our rolls, but if someone doesn’t vote in two general election cycles, they’re usually deleted from our voter list.”

Hatcher said the election, which was monitored by officials from the state and from the U.S. Department of Justice, are unofficial until they are certified Friday morning.

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