Through roughly the first half of the 17 days of advanced voting, 1,365 Bulloch County citizens voted in-person, while another 93 had marked and returned absentee paper ballots, and one military or overseas voter registered in the county voted by electronic ballot delivery.

So, 1,459 Bulloch voters, or just 2.7% of the county’s 54,817 registered voters, had so far cast early ballots for the May 19 party primaries and nonpartisan general election, featuring contests for offices from governor and U.S. senator down to a seat on the local school board. Those numbers were obtained in a phone call to county Elections Supervisor Shontay Jones as of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 6.

Her “absentee statistical report” chart for cumulative voting as of the daily close at 5 p.m. Tuesday had shown a count of 1,284 in-person voters, so another 81 had come in and voted in the first three and a half hours Wednesday, after 199 voted in-person in nine hours Tuesday.

“It was never long lines, but you know, pretty steady for the most part,” Jones said. “So there wasn’t any waiting, but that did pick up.”

Saturday, May 2, the first of the two Saturdays of voting opportunity, had increased the in-person cumulative voter total from 839 to 898. So, 59 Bulloch residents had voted in the eight available hours Saturday, not up to last week’s Monday-Friday daily average of 168 voters, but more than have shown up on some Saturdays in past elections.

Saturday “morning started off definitely pretty good, even in the rain, surprisingly, and then of course toward the afternoon it kind of slowed down a little,” Jones said.

So that’s where things stood Wednesday, when the early voting location remained open until 5 p.m. and would reopen 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

Saturday & next week

Then this Saturday, May 9, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. – the site opens an hour later than on weekdays – will be the final Saturday opportunity to vote in this election. But the office will be open for early voting on five more weekdays, 8 a.m.-5p.m. Monday-Friday, May 11-15.

The Board of Elections and Registration Office, in the County Annex at 113 North Main St., Suite 201, Statesboro, is the only site in the county for early voting, weekdays as well as Saturday.

Absentee request deadline Friday

No-excuse absentee voting by a voter-requested, mailed-out paper ballot has also been available, but by state law, the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot to be mailed to you in this election is this Friday, May 8.

“So we won’t process any of those applications after … Friday,” Jones had cautioned.

However, once voters receive an absentee ballot, they have until Election Day to mark and return it. Absentee ballots received in the elections office by the close of polls, 7 p.m. on May 19, can be counted.

For voters who do not vote early or absentee, all 16 traditional Bulloch County voting precincts will be open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, May 19, for their assigned voters.

My Voter Page

Registered Georgia voters can go online to the state My Voter Page, https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/ and enter their first initial, last name, county and date of birth to view a sample ballot individualized to their particular set of districts. The My Voter Page also provides ways to find your early voting location or Election Day poll location or apply for an absentee ballot before next Friday’s deadline.

Jones and the Bulloch County Elections and Registration Board published a generic sample ballot, accompanied by a poster with “Ways to Vote” and “Bring Your Photo I.D.” information sections, in the April 23 printed and e-editions of the Statesboro Herald. Sample ballots are also available at the elections office.

“We’re just ready for the voters to come out. …,” Jones had said last week, suggesting that oters can avoid lines by taking advantage of the early voting period. “We’ve been steady going … but our poll workers, you know, they like to be busy, not just sitting around waiting for one or two to come in.

“So we’re just hoping that as people hear more about it they’ll do their research and come on out and not have to wait in line on Election Day,” she said.

Statewide numbers

Meanwhile the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office election data hub reported statewide, combined early in-person and absentee participation by 341,576 voters through noon Wednesday, out of 7,358,596 “active” registered voters, a 4.6% turnout.

The use of the “active” voter baseline – only recently registered or updated voters and those who participated in the recent election cycles – pushes the percentage higher than when all registered voters are included, as in Bulloch County’s 2.7% number. Still, the state’s interactive map showed Bulloch’s early turnout so far as just 3.1% of its active voters.

Local races

The most active county-level contest in Bulloch is the three-candidate Republican primary race in Board of Commissioners District 2 for Seat 2-B. Incumbent Toby Conner is being challenged by both Frank Bedell and Ted Redman.

That race could go to a runoff, and some of the statewide races with multiple newcomer candidates in both parties are almost certain to do so. The primary runoffs would be held June 16.

The only in-county nonpartisan race in the May 19 election is in Board of Education District 5 between incumbent Glennera Martin and challenger Jessica L. Jones for that district’s school board seat.

In Commissioners District 1, Spencer Johnson is running as a Republican to challenge Seat 1-B incumbent Anthony Simmons, a Democrat. But they appear on separate party ballots at this phase, so that race won’t be decided until November.

Because this is the general primary for partisan offices and also the nonpartisan general election, voters are asked to choose either a Democratic, Republican or nonpartisan ballot. The nonpartisan ballot, which features judgeships and school board seats only, is actually supplied along with the Democratic and Republican ballot to voters who choose either of those.