Incumbents Chuck Garrett and Connie Massey handily defeated challengers Rebecca Billings and Carolyn Maultsby in Watkinsville Council races on Tuesday.
Garrett received 67.1 percent of the vote to Billings’ 32.9 percent in the race for Post 1.
Massey received 71.9 percent of the vote to Maultsby’s 28.1 percent in the Post 2 election.
Turnout was very low, with only 434 voters casting a ballot, or 19.6 percent of the city’s 2,214 active registered voters.
Mayor Brian Brodrick’s name also was on the ballot, though he ran without opposition.
Twenty-six voters wrote in a name rather than vote for Brodrick. Voters who cast a ballot for Brodrick totaled 351, with the remaining 57 voters skipping the race.
The elections were nonpartisan.
Time Of Vote
Just more than half of the voters who cast a ballot in the Watkinsville races did so before election day.
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The advanced voting total of 224 represented 51.6 percent of the vote, and the four requested and returned absentee ballots were 0.9 percent of the total.
The election day voting count of 206 represented 47.5 percent of those who cast a ballot.
Garrett did better in advance voting, with 71.4 percent of the vote to Billings’s 28.6 percent, than he did on election day, when he got 61.6 percent of the vote to Billings’ 38.4 percent.
Garrett received all four of the votes cast absentee by mail.
Massey receive 71.3 percent of the vote in advance to Maultsby’s 28.7, and 71.9 percent of the vote on election day, to Maultsby’s 28.1.
Massey received all four of the votes case absentee by mail.
Sixteen voters wrote in a name for the mayoral race in advanced voting, to 10 who wrote in a name on election day.
One person wrote in a name rather than vote for Garrett or Billings, and that person cast a ballot on election day.
Earlier Elections
Billings ran against Brodrick for mayor in 2021, and she received 163 votes (27.3 percent) to Brodrick’s 433 (72.7 percent).
That same year, Maultsby ran against Massey.
Maultsby received 138 votes (24.0 percent) to Massey’s 438 (76.0 percent).
Garrett ran for reelection unopposed in that election.
In a special election in June of 2021, Garrett defeated Maultsby in a race for Post 1, with 298 votes (76.4 percent) to Maultsby’s 92 (23.6 percent).
1 comment:
I am very glad the Watkinsville elections are nonpartisan. Hopefully, that makes the voters think more about who they are supporting. Oconee County Schools' BOE elections should be the same as they are in the vast majority of school systems in our state. But, of course, it's just much easier to check "Republican," and that's how the current BOE members like it, especially the election denier currently serving.
-David Lawrence
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