The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration, in a 3 to 2 vote on Thursday night, reduced the number of precincts in the county from eight to four, with the largest new precinct stretching from the Greene County line in the south to the Clarke County line in the north.
Ten citizens spoke at the consolidation hearing held before the vote, with all of them in opposition to the change.
Board of Elections and Registration Director Sharon Gregg made the case for consolidation at the beginning of the hearing, saying the reduction in voting places would save money and would affect few voters given the recent popularity of early and absentee voting.
As part of her presentation, Gregg said for the first time that city elections for Bishop, North High Shoals, and Watkinsville, which the county runs for those cities, will be held not within those cities but, with consolidation, at the Civic Center.
Bogart holds it own elections, so voters in those elections will have to go to two different voting locations if they vote on election day–one for city elections and the other for county, state, and federal elections.
Kirk Shook, the Republican Party appointment to the Board, argued for consolidation, saying his analysis of recent elections supported the reduction.
Ken Davis, the Democratic Party appointee to the Board, said that county elections were running smoothly and that consolidation was a solution in search of a problem.
Davis was joined by Shami Jones in voting against the motion to consolidate the precincts.
Shook, Board Chair Jay Hanley, and Doug Hammond voted in favor.
Consolidation Approved
The consolidation approved by the Board on Thursday combines the Bishop, Civic Center, North Oconee, and City Hall precincts into one massive precinct called Oconee Central with voting at the Civic Center.
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| Hammond, Shook, Hanley, Davis (L-R) Below Map 2/6/2025 |
The cities of Bishop, North High Shoals, and Watkinsville all fall in that precinct.
Bogart and Marswood Hall will be merged to form Oconee Northeast, with voting at Marswood Hall at St. Philothea Greek Orthodox on Mars Hill Road.
Colham Ferry will remain unchanged, with voting at Poplar Springs Baptist Church on Colham Ferry Road. The precinct will be renamed as Oconee South.
Dark Corner will remain unchanged, with voting at Bethabara Baptist Church on Monroe Highway (U.S. 78). It will still be called Dark Corner.
(The map of the consolidated eights precincts is on the county web site.)
Republican Party Agenda
A Feb. 4 news release by the Georgia Republican Party played a prominent part in the Feb. 6 meeting of the Elections and Registration Board, held in the Commission Chamber of the county’ Administrative Building to accommodate the consolidation hearing.
In that news release, Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon announced his legislative priorities for the current session, including ending “early in-person and no excuse absentee voting.” The Republican majority controls both the House and the Senate.
McKoon also called for the state to stop using Dominion voting machines and to switch to paper ballots.
Victoria Cruz, speaking at the Public Comment part of the meeting before the consolidation hearing, called attention to and endorsed McKoon’s priorities.
Harold Thompson, the Oconee County Democratic Party Chair, the first speaker in the consolidation hearing, said the announcement by McKoon made consolidation inappropriate since the rationale for reducing the number of precincts was the increased use of early voting.
After the hearing, Board Chair Hanley said he was confident that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, whom he said he knows personally, would veto any legislation eliminating early voting.
Hanley, who served as Oconee County Republican Party Chair for eight years ending in 2015, distanced himself from the position of the state Republic Party.
Gregg And Shook
Gregg, addressing the audience, said “keeping small turnout locations open is costly. By combining those smaller precincts with larger ones, it saves money, making staffing easier and maintaining experienced poll workers.”
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| Gregg 2/6/2025 |
The state will hold a special election for Public Service Commissioner in June of this year, and Gregg estimated that costs would drop from $38,052 with the existing eight precincts, to $25,984 with four.
In the November General Election in 2022, she said, 70 percent of the voters participated in advanced voting either in-person or via an absentee ballot, with the remaining 30 percent voting on election day.
In November of last year, she said, 82 percent of the voters in the county voted in-person before election day or via an absentee ballot, and 18 percent voted on election day.
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| Shook 2/6/2025 |
Shook said he looked at Barrow, Greene, Jackson, Morgan, and Oglethorpe counties going back to 2012, when Oconee County has 13 precincts, and found that all had reduced the number of precincts since that time.
In addition, he said, voting data for Oconee County show “that early voting has continued to be the preference of voters” across those years.
Citizen Comments
Thompson, the first of those who spoke at the public hearing, said he had been prepared to argue that the consolidation “was contrary to your mission to assure that elections are convenient, secure and accessible to voters.”
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| Thompson 2/6/2025 |
“But right on cue comes the chair of the Georgia GOP with his voter suppression wish list,” Thompson said, referring to the Feb. 4 new release by McKoon.
“Note the last item,” Thompson said. “He wants the legislature to completely eliminate early voting and no excuse absentee voting.”
As a result of this discussion, Thompson said, the consolidation proposal “should be voted down.”
Angela Helwig, who followed Thompson, said the proposed consolidation “has the potential to cause unnecessary hardship for Oconee voters.”
Phil Gilbertson said in the last election he worked a lot with the elderly, and “I think about the impact of this on the poor and the infirm.”
“It seems to me we ought to be cautious about these decisions that are driven by efficiency but in the end restrict one of the most cherished and fundamental rights of citizens.”
Gilbertson, as well as the speaker who followed, Ann Hollifield, referenced the McKoon announcement.
“If those things happen,” Hollifield said of the McKoon proposal, “It is almost certain that in our next major election there will be chaos in the polling places here in Oconee County.”
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| Jones With Gregg, Jennifer Stone 2/6/2025 |
Janet Jones, the Mayor of Bogart, said “my biggest concern that I do have is that are going to have two places to vote. And I think that is going to be very difficult, because we do have an aging community.”
She said the new location “was only a few more miles down the road,” but that is different from “walking a few blocks to our community center to vote.”
Betsy Kurimo-Beechuk said the question is, “How would reducing the number of precincts benefit our voters? I don’t see the benefit.”
“This feels like voter suppression,” she said. “Voting is a right. It should not be hard or difficult. So please stop making it so.”
Comments Of Board Members And Vote
When Hanley asked for comment from the Board, Shook said he recognized the uncertainly mentioned by the speakers because of the McKoon proposals.
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| Hanley 2/6/2025 |
“I’m supportive of the consolidation because we’re acting on the information that we have today,” he said. “If something changes, we can change as well.”
“I, too, was dismayed by the communication that went out from the state GOP,” Hanley said. “As one who has always wanted as many folks to vote as possible, I have been disappointed as to what I’ve seen by the state Republican Party.”
“The state Republican Party does not represent the state of Georgia as a whole,” he said. “It does not represent most conservatives, most Republicans in the state.”
Hanley said he didn’t think the proposed changes advocated by McKoon will be passed by the legislature, but if they are passed, “I do not at all see our current governor signing that legislation.”
Davis, when asked to speak, said “I don’t see a problem...We’ve got plenty of equipment. We’ve got spares...We’ve got plenty of poll workers...”
Davis said there were a few problems with the existing locations, but they were solvable. Turnout is high, he said. Long lines are not a problem.
Parking sometimes is a problem, he said. But the Civic Center, which will get new voters from three precincts with the consolidation, is one of the sites with limited parking, he said.
“How about complaints from voters?” he asked. “Very few, and its usually just parking.”
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| Davis 2/6/2025 |
“I can’t see a problem,” he said. “I think we’re a solution waiting for a problem and I can’t find the problem.”
Neither Jones nor Hammond made any comments when given the chance to do so by Hanley.
When Hanley called for a motion, Shook moved that the county move from eight to four precincts, and Jones seconded.
When Hanley called for a vote, Jones and then Davis voted against, and Shook and Hammond voted for consolidation.
Hanley broke the tie by voting for consolidation.
Hanley, Hammond, and Jones are appointees of the Board of Commissioners.
Video
The video below is of the entire Feb. 8 meeting of the Board of Elections and Registration.
Public Comment not part of the consolidation hearing began at 1:46 in the video.
Gregg began her comments on consolidation at 11:24
Shook started his analysis at 23:56.
Public comment on consolidation began at 29:35.
Board discussion began at 54:51.
3 comments:
“We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot but there are those in power doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting…”
–remarks by former President Barack Obama’s eulogy at the late Congressman John Lewis’ funeral last July 2020
This is most likely to not have a negative impact, but if the Assembly does do what the GA GOP is clearly asking them to do, Election Day will be chaos.
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