After six days of early voting for the May 19 Party Primary and Nonpartisan elections, 1,277 of Oconee County 34,515 registered voters have cast a ballot, a just slightly higher percentage than had cast a ballot after six days of early voting in the May 2022 elections .
Another 41 voters have returned a mail ballot, bringing the total number of voters who have cast a ballot by the end of the day on Saturday to 1,318, or 3.8 percent of the total eligible voters.
The heaviest day of early voting was Friday, when 278 voters participated in early voting at the county Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville.
Only 120 voters participated in Advance In Person voting on Saturday, the first of two Saturdays when early voting is possible.
Just less than three-quarters of the in-person ballots cast were in the Republican Party Primary (73.5 percent), with 25.7 percent cast in the Democratic Party Primary and 10 ballots (0.8 percent) cast using only the nonpartisan judicial ballot.
The nonpartisan elections also are at the bottom of the Democratic and Republican ballots, and the judicial nonpartisan election is not a primary, meaning votes cast on May 19 are final.
Oconee County voters also are being asked to approve renewal of the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). Voting on the sales tax is the final item on the ballot.
The outcome of that vote also is final at the end of May 19 voting.
Ballot Comparisons
The May 19 Party Primary and Nonpartisan Elections this year are largely comparable to those four years ago.
One difference was that the Republican Party in 2022 had a competitive race for an open Post 3 on the Oconee Board of Education, ultimately won by Ryan Hammock.
Neither party has a competitive county race on the ballot this year.
The Democratic Party did not field any candidates for the two Board of Commissioner posts up for election or for the two Board of Education posts.
Incumbent Post 2 Commissioner Chuck Horton and incumbent Post 3 Commissioner Amrey Harden have no challengers in the Republican Party Primary.
Hammock is unopposed for Post 3 on the Board of Education, and Kate Patterson is running unopposed in the Republican Party Primary for Post 2 on the Board of Education, being vacated by incumbent Amy Parrish, who opted not to seek re-election.
The May 19 ballot includes the SPLOST renewal, and no comparable issue was on the ballot in 2022.
In addition, the 2022 ballot contained only one competitive judicial race–for a Supreme Court position–while the May 19 ballot contains four competitive judicial races, two for the Supreme Court and two for the Court of Appeals.
Judicial races are nonpartisan, but the incumbents are running with Republican support, and the challengers are running with Democratic support.
Superior Court Judges Lisa Lott and Eric Way Norris from the Western Judicial Circuit of the Superior Court, which includes Oconee County, are on the ballot unopposed.
Turnout Data
The 1,277 votes cast by the end of the day on Saturday represent 3.7 percent of the registered votes.
After six days of early voting in 2022, Advance In Person voting produced 1,127 ballots, or 3.5 percent of the 32,034 registered voters at that time.
After six days of early voting in 2022, the county had received 97 Absentee Mail Ballots, compared with the 41 received by the end of the day on Saturday. Of those 41 mail ballots received, 19 were Democratic, 19 were Republican, and three were Nonpartisan.
The county had issued 364 Absentee By Mail Ballots by the end of the sixth day of early voting in 2022, but it has issue only 213 so far for the May 19 election.
Advance In Person turnout so far has been highest in the county’s South Precinct (4.2 percent), followed by Central Precinct (4.1 percent), Northeast (3.4 percent), and Dark Corner (2.1 percent).
By the end of early voting in May of 2022, early voting resulted in 5,005 votes cast, or 15.6 percent of the county’s 32,034 registered voters. Of the votes cast, 12.7 percent were Democratic 87.2 percent were Republican, and 0.2 percent were solely Nonpartisan.
At the end of voting on Election day on May 24, 2022, a total 12,212 of the county’s 29,155 active registered voters had cast a ballot, or 41.9 percent.
In the May Party Primary and Nonpartisan Election in 2024, only 635 persons cast a ballot in the first six days of early voting, or only 1.9 percent of the 33,143 eligible voters.
Early voting continues for the May 19 election at 8 a.m. on Monday at the Oconee County Administrative Building.
Voting on May 9 will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. No voting will be held on May 10, May 16 or May 17.
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