One In Five Of Oconee County’s Voters Have Cast In-Person Or Absentee Ballots For June 9 Primary

***Republican Ballots Make Up Two-Thirds Of Those Cast***

With 10 days of early voting completed for the June 9 primary and judicial elections, just more than 20 percent of Oconee County’s 30,457 registered voters have cast a ballot, either in person or by returning an Absentee ballot.

Republican ballots continue to dominate.

Of the 980 In-Person ballots cast by the end of the day on Saturday, 88.8 percent were in the Republican Primary, and of the 5,188 Absentee ballots returned as of the end of the day on Saturday, 66.2 percent were for the Republican Primary.

Summing across the two early voting types, Republican ballots were 69.7 percent of the 6,168 cast ballots, Democratic ballots were 28.6 percent, and 1.8 percent were only for the Nonpartisan judicial races.

At the end of the first week of early voting, Republican ballots (In-Person and Absentee) had been 67.7 percent of the total, while Democratic ballots had been 30.3 percent of the total.

Early voting will continue on Monday and is being held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday this week at the Elections and Registration Office, 10 Court Street, across from the Courthouse.

Voters must social distance, and workers are wearing protective equipment.

Turnout Comparisons

Early voting did not take place on Memorial Day, but it did take place on Saturday, resulting in the total of 10 days of early voting.

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The June 9 election is a combination of the postponed March 24 presidential primary as well as of the party primaries and nonpartisan elections originally scheduled for May 19.

Fran Leathers, director of Elections and Registration for Oconee County, said in an email message after early voting had finished on Saturday that her office has issued 9,396 Absentee ballots, of which 2,942 (31.3 percent) were Democratic and 6,145 (65.4 percent) were Republican.

Her office issued another 309 Nonpartisan ballots (3.3 percent).

The unusual nature of the June 9 election, being conducted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, makes it difficult to anticipate the final level of turnout.

In 2016, when the presidential primary was not merged with the state party primaries, 6,446 of the county’s then 22,255 registered voters cast a ballot, or 29.9 percent.

The 6,168 ballots cast as of the end of the day on Saturday are 20.3 percent of the 30,457 registered voters.