Long presidential campaign season winding to a close

ALBANY — It’s a story that has been months and months in the making — long, arduous, improbable, tumultuous months in which American voters have found themselves facing what many are calling the ultimate lesser-of-two-evils decision.

With one candidate mired in an FBI investigation over alleged mishandling of state secrets and the other facing multiple charges of alleged sexual misconduct, the long campaign season is now almost — mercifully — over.

Ladies and gentlemen: your 2016 United States presidential election.

With millions of early votes already cast — a record number in Georgia alone — and some Elections officials predicting a near-record turnout, voters will decide once and for all (barring some unforeseen hanging chad-like dilemma) Tuesday whether Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States.

It’s a decision the majority of Americans are dreading, with latest poll figures showing an overwhelming majority of voters declaring they have little confidence in either candidate. And with the electorate’s polarization matching the gridlock that has resulted from a partisan-politicized Congress, whose governance has consisted primarily of filibuster or the threat thereof, few have hope that Tuesday’s general election will bring about change in a government that has all but ground to a halt.

But the people who watch such trends say they’re expecting a significant turnout.

In Dougherty County, which has no local races, Elections Superintendent Ginger Nickerson said Friday she expects more than half of the county’s slightly more than 61,000 registered voters to cast ballots. In nearby Worth County, Nickerson’s counterpart, Virginia Andrews, said she envisions up to 80 percent of that county’s voters turning out.

Terrell County Elections Superintendent Carolyn Williams said the voter participation in that Southwest Georgia community will also be significant, as the electorate decides, among other issues, whether to return Christopher Wright, who has been removed from office by Gov. Nathan Deal and is under indictment for sex charges including aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, child molestation and statutory rape, to the mayor’s office. Their alternative is to bring back his challenger, Robert Albritten, who served as the city’s top elected official for 32 years before being ousted by Wright. During his time in office, Albritten was convicted of drunk driving and fraud charges.

“If this is the best we can do, we’re never going to grow,” one frustrated Terrell voter said in a call to The Albany Herald. “We’ve become pretty much a laughingstock.”

Despite the absence of a local race — or perhaps because of said absence — 13,989 voters had shown up in person at two polling sites to cast ballots in Dougherty County by Friday’s final day of early voting. Another 1,787 had returned requested absentee-by-mail ballots, roughly half of the 3,551 sent out by Nickerson’s office.

“We’re actually about where I thought we’d be, given that this is a presidential election,” Nickerson said Friday as she and her staff made final preparations for what they expect to be a busy Election Day. “I think most of the large number of voters came in early because they didn’t want to wait in what could be long lines on Election Day.”

Dougherty County was one of 10 counties in the state whose Election board voted to add a Sunday voting day (Oct. 30) to the mandatory statewide Saturday vote (Oct. 29). Nickerson said the results were mixed.

“We had 573 voters on that Saturday and 408 on Sunday, and those are pretty good numbers,” she said. “But my concern is that we weren’t seeing a lot of new voters. There were a lot of people who came in who would have voted early (on one of the other days) but just decided to come in on Saturday or Sunday. For (Saturday and Sunday) voting to really have an impact, we have to see people coming in who would otherwise not have voted.

“Still, looking at our early voting numbers, I’d be disappointed if we didn’t have an overall turnout of more than 50 percent.”

In Worth County, where incumbents Jeff Hobby and Johnny Johnson, the county’s sheriff and coroner, respectively, are facing challengers Tracy Jones and Jonathan Luke, respectively, early voting surpassed record totals by Thursday, leading Andrews to predict up to an 80 percent turnout.

“There’s a lot of interest out there,” the Worth Elections superintendent said. “Early voting has surpassed all records, and there are a lot of first-time voters.”

In addition to the mayoral race in Dawson, Terrell County voters will decide whether to name Larry Faust or T. Gamble as their County Commission chairman. The winner will replace Wilbur T. Gamble, T. Gamble’s father.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said more than 2,180,000 Georgians had cast early ballots through Thursday leading up to Tuesday’s general election. Kemp and the state’s senior senator, Johnny Isakson, will fly into the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport Monday, the secretary of state to assure voters that their voice will be heard on election day and Isakson to rally support in what has turned into a closer-than-expected battle with businessman and political newcomer Jim Barksdale.

In another state race that has drawn widespread attention, the state Democratic party is backing independent candidate Kenneth Zachary in his quest to unseat long-time Republican Gerald Greene for the House District 151 seat. Greene is the only state Republican holding a seat in a majority African-American (53 percent) district.

Other state races that impact Southwest Georgia voters include Republican incumbent Mike Cheokas of Americus being challenged by Democrat Bill McGowin in HD 138; incumbent Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, facing Tommy Hill in HD 173; and incumbent state Sen. Greg Kirk, R-Americus, facing Ruenett Melton, D-Tifton, for the Senate District 13 seat.

Polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. throughout the state on Tuesday.