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Turnout low in early vote

• Advance voting in a special Republican primary attracts few voters across much of a Senate district.

Susan McCord

FITZGERALD — Voter turnout remains down in the single digits after three days of early voting in several counties of the 13th Senate District.

“Things are very slow over here,” said Cindy Dunlap, Elections Supervisor for Ben Hill County, where only seven people have cast a Republican ballot since the start of advance voting Monday.

Five candidates — John Dickey Crosby, Horace Hudgins, Wally Roberts, Rusty Simpson and Bob Usry — qualified just two weeks ago to run in a special Republican Senate primary Tuesday to replace Sen. Joseph Carter. Carter, R-Tifton, withdrew from the July 15 primary to run for a superior court judgeship.

With early voting for the Aug. 5 special primary ending Friday, Ben Hill has seen a higher turnout — about 25, Dunlap said, in the Democratic runoff between U.S. Senate Democratic candidates Vernon Jones and Jim Martin.

The special GOP primary for Senate District 13 is only open to registered voters who voted Republican or did not vote in the July primary.

In Ben Hill, where more than 37 percent participated in the general primary, only 250 of some 3,200 who voted cast Republican ballots, Dunlap said.

Things are even slower in Hudgins’ home county of Irwin, which, like Ben Hill, had exclusively Democratic local primary elections July 15.

Wednesday afternoon, Irwin County had seen only five voters cast Republican ballots, while 20 voted in the Democratic U.S. Senate runoff, the only election on the Democratic ballot, according to Chief Registrar Mary Denney.

Irwin has about 5,000 registered voters, but only 79 of them voted Republican in the July 15 primary, Denney said.

In Wilcox County, where District 13 covers only the southeastern part of the county, a heated sheriff primary July 15 attracted 52 percent of Wilcox’s 4,350 voters, Deputy Registrar Judy Roberts said.

The race was a Democratic one, and only three people, all Democrats, have cast early votes this week, Roberts said.

A runoff between two Democratic sheriff’s candidates has drawn some 297 to vote early this week in Turner County, while only 15 people have cast Republican ballots in the special primary, Chief Registrar Tricilla Bryan said. Her office also has mailed absentee ballots to about 60 of the county’s 4,273 registered voters, she said.

Two Democratic runoffs between candidates for sheriff and County Commission chair are on the minds of Worth County voters, some 189 of whom have voted early this week, Chief Registrar Sue Potts said.

“It’s mostly Democrat,” Potts said.

Only about 700 of Worth’s 10,287 voters cast Republican ballots in the July 15 general primary, when turnout was around 34 percent, and her office has mailed out about 100 paper absentee ballots, she said.

The situation is slightly improved in Lee County, which has two residents — Wally Roberts and Bob Usry — running for the Republican state Senate nomination.

All of Lee’s local elections were Republican races July 15, and the county has a runoff between tax commission candidates on the Republican ballot with the Senate primary, Elections Supervisor Veronica Johnson said.

Turnout in advance voting is about half what it was for the July 15 primary, with 160 casting ballots, 152 of them Republican, as of Wednesday afternoon, Johnson said.

Johnson said she hoped to see turnout in Lee approach the 38 percent it was for the July 15 elections.

Some 104 voters had cast Republican ballots as of late Wednesday in Crisp County, which had several contested Republican races July 15, Elections Superintendent Brenda Turner said.

“This is rocking along about like I thought it would be,” Turner said.

Crisp had a higher turnout of Republicans than Democrats in the July 15 election, and Turner expects the same from the county’s approximately 11,000 registered voters for the special primary, she said.

In Tift County, home to Senate candidates Crosby and Simpson, more than 350 had voted, 282 of them casting Republican ballots, during the first three days of advance voting, Elections Supervisor Jean Edwards said.

In the county where only 30 percent of some 19,000 registered voters cast ballots in the July 15 primary, turnout for the Aug. 5 election is higher than Edwards expected.

“They’re voting better than I would have thought,” she said.

Early voting in all eight counties lasts through Friday; the election is Tuesday, Aug. 5.

The Lee County Republican Party is hosting a forum for Republican candidates, including the five Senate candidates and two runoff candidates for tax commissioner, at 7 p.m. tonight at Lee County High School’s Clay Auditorium.

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