Important offices to be decided in tomorrow’s runoffs

ALBANY — Southwest Georgia voters have a chance to make a significant impact in their communities Tuesday with four important offices to be decided in runoff elections.

As voters in Lee County go to the polls Tuesday they’ll be casting a vote in what has been a hotly contested race to replace retiring judge John Wheaton as the county’s Probate Court judge.

Squaring off in that runoff are Miles O’Quinn and Melanie Gahring, who both earned enough votes to emerge from a four-person contest in May’s primary/nonpartisan election. In that election Gahring was the top vote-getter with 1,282, narrowly edging out O’Quinn, who finished with 1,214 votes.

Terrell County voters will decide who will be the county’s next tax commissioner and its next sheriff, since neither runoff winner will face opposing party opposition in November.

The county’s chief tax appraiser, Darlene Paul, who earned 795 votes in the May primary, and 17-year tax commissioner’s office employee Mary Ellen Harnage, who captured 506 votes, were the two candidates who emerged from a four-person primary race; while incumbent Sheriff John Bowens, who earned 917 votes in May, will meet former law enforcement officer James Driver Jr., who earned 697 primary votes.

In a third South Georgia runoff, voters in Decatur, Baker, Mitchell, Calhoun and Grady counties will decide who, between challengers Ryan Cleveland and Heather Lanier, will replace retiring judge A. Wallace Cato as South Georgia Superior Court Judge.

In the May primary/nonpartisan race, Cleveland emerged with the most votes, earning 34.8 percent, followed by Lanier’s 34.5 percent. A third candidate, Mike Bankston, captured 30.6 percent, which left him out of the runoff.

Both Cleveland and Lanier said part of their campaign strategy has been to encourage voters to come out to the polls.

Voter turnout has also been a concern for Lee County Elections Supervisor Veronica Johnson, who, based on the low turnout for the May primaries, said she was not optimistic about voters returning to the polls for the runoff. Despite those fears, however, Johnson reported that early voting numbers were better than she anticipated, giving her hope that even more voters will hit the polls tomorrow.

“We actually ended up with a few more people voting early than we expected,” she said Monday afternoon. “It still wasn’t a huge turnout, though. We had 629 people vote early, and in May we only had 1,035, so it was a better turnout than what we thought it would be.

“I’m thinking if we hit 10 percent (of the registered voters) that would be great. I’d be really happy if we went over 10 percent. Hopefully, people will realize the importance of this election.”

Although she said she expected to see fairly strong early voter turnout, Johnson’ counterpart in Terrell County, elections supervisor/registrar Carolyn Williams, said that early voting there exceeded her expectations.

“We have had more people to vote absentee and in person for the July runoff than we did for the May primary,” said Williams. “In May, we had 723 people, and for July we had 747. I’m just hoping we’ll have voting lines everywhere tomorrow. We have 5,425 active voters in Terrell County, and I’m hoping we have least 2,000 to 2,3000 show up tomorrow. I have faith in Terrell Countians that they will. These races are very important.”

Polls in each county will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There are no runoff elections in Dougherty, Mitchell or Worth counties.