One in five of Oconee County’s 34,013 registered voters (20.0 percent) has cast a ballot for the May 19 Party Primary and Nonpartisan elections as of the end of early voting on Friday, up from 16.7 percent at that same point four years ago.
The increase in voting compared with 2022 is largely the result of increased voting in the Democratic Party Primary. Democratic Ballots at this point make up 27.8 percent of the ballots cast.
So far in 2026 voting, 1,143 more voters used the Democratic Party Ballot than at this point in 2022, but only 202 more voters used the Republican Party Ballot than at this point in 2022. In 2022, the number of registered voters was 32,034.
The number of voters using the Nonpartisan Ballot, which contains only the judicial races, was at 62 at the end of the day on Friday, up from nine four years ago.
Democratic participation in Oconee County voting was strikingly low in the May election of 2022, making up only 12.7 percent of the Advance In Person voting and 11.9 percent of the final total vote. Republican ballots were 87.2 percent of the Advance In Person vote and 87.4 percent of the final vote total.
Democrats had 11 competitive state-wide races on the ballot in 2022, but no competitive local races, while Republicans had nine state-wide competitive races on the ballot and one local competitive race–for Post 3 on the Board of Education.
Both parties have competitive races at the federal, state, and legislative levels this year, but neither party has competitive county races.
Predicting final turnout from early voting turnout is difficult, as advance in person voting has made up as little as 35.2 percent to as high as 76.9 percent of total final vote across 12 elections in the county going back to May of 2022.
Election Day voting begins at 7 a.m. and continues through 7 p.m. at the county’s four precinct locations.
Early Voting By Day
A total of 1,229 voters cast a ballot on Friday, up from 742 the day earlier, and compared with 698 on the final day of early voting in 2022, the last election comparable to the May 19 Party Primary and Nonpartisan elections.
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| Advance In Person Voting By Day Of Voting (Click To Enlarge) |
Early voting exceeded early voting four years ago on each comparable day of early voting with two exceptions.
Early voting traditionally has been high on the final day of balloting, with 1,542 casting a vote in the final day of early voting in November of 2022, up from 950 the day before.
In November of 2024, the final day of early voting had 1,581 casting a ballot, up from 1,100 the day before. But 1,642 cast a ballot on the fourth day of early voting that year and 1,587 cast a ballot the ninth day.
In that election, 76.9 percent of the voters who cast a ballot did so in Advance In Person voting.
In the most recent election in the county, for the Dec. 9 special election for House District 121, a total of 66.6 percent of the votes were cast Advance In Person. That figure was 46.4 percent in November of last year.
Participation in Advance In Person voting for the current May 19 election has been highest among voters in the South Precinct (22.0 percent), followed by the Central Precinct (21.5 percent), Northeast Precinct (16.8 percent), and Dark Corner Precinct (13.3 percent).
Mail Balloting
As of the end of the day on Friday, 194 voters had returned an Absentee By Mail Ballot, compared with 347 at the end of early voting four years ago.
The county Elections and Registration Office issued 268 Absentee By Mail Ballots for the current election, compared with 488 four years ago.
The 6,640 Advance In Person Ballots combined with the 194 Absentee By Mail Ballots brings the total to 6,834 received ballots so far this year, compared with 5,352 at this point four years ago.
The 194 Absentee By Mail Ballots are made up of 81 Democratic Ballots (41.8 percent), 110 Republican Ballots (56.7 percent), and three Nonpartisan Ballots (1.5 percent).
The Advance In Person Ballots consist of 1,821 Democratic Ballots (27.4 percent), 4,760 Republican Ballots (71.7 percent), and 59 Nonpartisan Ballots (0.9 percent).
That brings the totals so far to 1,902 Democratic Ballots (27.8 percent), 4,870 Republican Ballots (71.3 percent), and 62 Nonpartisan Ballots (0.9 percent).
In 2022, the Democratic vote at this point in the election had been 12.7 percent of Advance In Person voting and 28.9 percent of Absentee By Mail voting.
When election day voting was included (10.2 percent), the total dropped to 11.9 percent.
In voting in May of 2024, Democratic ballots made up 16.0 percent of the ballots cast Advance In Person and 29.6 percent of the ballots cast Absentee by Mail, for a total of 16.9 percent.
Neither the county nor the Secretary of State report data allowing for a calculation of the final percentage of votes in that election by party ballot.
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