If the Dec. 9 House District 121 Special Election is a turnout contest between traditionally Republican Oconee County and traditionally Democratic Clarke County, after six days of early voting, Oconee County is the hands down winner.
At the end of the first week of early voting on Saturday, 6.9 percent of the 27,045 eligible voters in the three Oconee County precincts in the 121st House District had cast a ballot.
In Clarke County, only 2.3 percent of the 15,527 eligible voters in the 10 precincts that wholly or partially are in the 121st House District had cast a ballot by the end of the day on Saturday.
The Oconee County early voting turnout rate of 6.9 percent is much higher than the 2.2 percent turnout rate after six days of early voting for the Nov. 4 Public Service Commission races and Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Reflecting the importance of turnout in the election, both parties have been urging those voters they think are most like to vote for their candidates to cast a ballot.
To date, the two candidates, Democrat Eric Gisler and Republican Mack “Dutch” Guest, have not met in any public forum that would allow voters to compare where the candidates stand on issues.
Guest, a political newcomer, offers no positions on issues on his web site, and he told Oconee County Republicans when he introduced himself to them earlier this month that he was still “learning” and had not taken positions on many of the issues.
Gisler’s web site is policy oriented, and he lists his position on five different issues: healthcare, public schools, election integrity, lowering costs for families, and protecting personal freedom and privacy
Early Voting
At the end of six of days of early voting on Saturday, 1,876 Oconee County voters in the three precincts that make up the Oconee County part of House District 121 had cast a ballot.
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Voting grew each day from Monday through Friday, ending with 395 voters casting a ballot that day at the Oconee County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, North of Watkinsville, where early voting is taking place.
That number fell to 203 on Saturday, the lowest number for the week. Saturday was the only Saturday with early voting for the special election, as voting this week runs only through Wednesday because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Voting those days will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Voting will continue Dec. 1 to 5, also from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Early voting for the Nov. 4 election began on Tuesday, Oct. 14, because Oct. 13 was a national holiday, Columbus Day/Indigenous People Day.
If Monday, Oct. 22, is included in the first six days of early voting for the Nov. 4 election, only 614 voters had cast a ballot in the first six days of early voting, or 2.2 percent.
At the end of early voting for the Nov. 4 election, 11.7 percent of Oconee County’s eligible voters had cast a ballot. Final turnout for that election for the three precincts in the 121st House District was 25.9 percent of active voters.
Partisan Figures
Voters in Georgia do not register by party, and both parties create data bases that classify voters based on the ballots they request when they vote in primaries.
The parties do not make theses databases available to the public, but they do monitor and know if the voters they label as their partisans have voted. They don’t release those data.
Turnout rates at the end of the day on Saturday were 7.6 percent in the Oconee Central Precinct, 8.4 percent in the Oconee South Precinct, and 3.1 percent in the Dark Corner Precinct.
Dark Corner has generally been more Republican that other precincts in the county, and in the Nov. 4 election, the Democratic candidates for the Public Service Commission did much better in the Central and South precincts than in Dark Corner.
Analysis of the vote in Clarke County is difficult because the county is divided into four Georgia House districts and two Georgia Senate districts. Clarke County Democratic voters are spread into five Republican-dominated districts, leaving the county with only one Democrat in the General Assembly.
Election data are reported by precinct, but the House Districts do not reflect precinct lines.
Turnout in the first six days of early voting in Clarke County has been light, with only 30 voters casting a ballot on Saturday. The heaviest day of voting was Wednesday (Nov. 19), when 79 voters participated in early voting.
The 121st District is heavily weighted toward Oconee County, with 63.4 percent of the registered voters in the District in Oconee County.
Oconee County’s fourth precinct, the Northeast, is in the 120th House District.
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