Early Voting For May 19 Primary Increased In Week Two, With Democratic Ballots Making Up Larger Share Than Four Years Ago

***Friday Was Heaviest Voting So Far***

Early voting for the May 19 Party Primary and Nonpartisan elections is running just ahead of early voting in the those elections in 2022, with 9.8 percent of the county’s 34,014 voters having cast a ballot by the end of the second week of early voting on Saturday.

Of that total, 3,214 votes were cast Advance In Person, up from 2,516 at that same point two years ago, when the county had 32,034 registered voters. The 3,214 is 9.4 percent of registered voters this year versus 7.9 percent four years ago.

Absentee ballots are running behind four years ago, however, with only 114 received so far this year, versus 185 at this stage of early voting four years ago.

With Advance In Person and Absentee ballots combined, 9.8 percent of the county’s registered voters have cast a ballot after 12 days of early voting this year, versus 9.4 percent after 12 days of early voting four years ago.

The big difference between 2022 and 2026 is turnout by party. So far, 916 voters have used a Democratic Ballot in Advance In Person voting, and 2,386 have used the Republican Ballot. Only 26 have used the Nonpartisan ballot.

Four years ago, at this point in voting, only 307 voters had used the Democratic Ballot, and 2,203 had used the Republican Party Ballot. Only six used the Nonpartisan ballot.

That means that the ballots cast so far are 27.5 percent Democratic (up from 26.3 percent a week ago) and 71.7 percent Republican (down from 72.7 percent a week earlier). In 2022, at this point in the election, the ballots were 12.2 percent Democratic and 86.7 percent Republican.

Early voting continues 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday of this week at the Oconee County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville. No voting will be held on Saturday.

Voting Details

Friday was the heaviest day of Advance In Person voting so far, with 447 persons casting a ballot.

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Saturday’s vote total of 288 was more than double the number of voters who took advantage of Saturday voting a week earlier.

Voting on the same day in the early voting cycle was higher in all but two days this year versus four years ago.

Early voting surged in the last week four years ago, ending with 597 persons casting a ballot on the final day, May 20. The elections were on May 24 four years ago.

In the end, four years ago, 41.0 percent of the ballots were cast Advance In Person, 55.5 percent were cast on election day, and 3.5 percent were cast Absentee By Mail.

At the end of balloting four years ago, 11.9 percent of the ballots cast in the county were Democratic, 87.4 percent were Republican, and 0.7 percent were Nonpartisan.

Democratic ballots in 2022 were 12.7 percent of the Advance In Person balloting, 10.2 percent of Election day balloting, and 28.9 percent of Absentee By Mail voting.

So far this year, 62 of the 114 Absentee By Mail ballots are Republican (54.4 percent), 49 are Democratic (43.0 percent), and three are nonpartisan (2.6 percent).

The Oconee County Office of Elections and Registration reduced the count of registered voters from 34,515 in its reports of the first week of early voting to 34,013 in the second week.