In-person early voting in Georgia’s June 16 general primary runoff is already set to begin Monday, June 8, and in fact this Friday, June 5, is the deadline for any registered voters who want an absentee paper ballot mailed to them to apply for one.

The only place to vote early in-person in Bulloch County will be the Board of Elections and Registration office in the County Annex, 113 North Main St., Suite 201, Statesboro. It will be open for early voters 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Friday, June 8–12, only. That’s it. There will be no Saturday voting in the runoff, and as usual, there will be no in-person voting on the Monday, in this case June 15, before the traditional Election Day.

A change made a few years ago in Georgia’s law regarding runoffs “puts us under a lot of pressure to try to get everything proofed and reprogrammed,” said Shontay Jones, Bulloch County elections supervisor. “So, the biggest reminder is that this will only be a week.”

Again, there will really be just five days to vote early, in contrast to the lead-up to the May 19 primary, when there were 17 days of early voting opportunity, including two Saturdays. But election workers saw very light participation “with no waiting in lines” for much of that time, only to be “slammed” with 700-plus voters on the final Friday, many toward the end of the day, she observed.

So the hint here is that early voters could come early or plan for off-peak voting times to avoid lines at the one centralized location, with only five days available before the runoff.

However, all 16 of Bulloch County’s traditional precinct voting places will open 7 a.m.–7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, June 16, for their assigned voters who have not voted early or absentee. Previously mailed out, received and completed absentee ballots can also be counted if returned by voters to the county election headquarters before 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Realities of a runoff

Because this is a primary runoff, there are two separate party ballots, and at this point many voters will not get to choose. If you voted a Democratic Party or a Republican Party ballot in the May 19 primary, you must vote the same party’s ballot in the June runoff.

However, if you are a registered voter who did not vote at all in the May primary, or if you voted a nonpartisan-only ballot then, you may choose either a Democratic or a Republican ballot in the June runoff. Georgia prohibits switching from one party to another to do “crossover” voting when a runoff is a continuation of the party primaries. But because the state has no actual party registration, voters who did not vote in either primary are still eligible to vote in either runoff.

Incidentally, in Bulloch County there is no nonpartisan-only ballot option at this point, and no nonpartisan races at the end of the party ballots. All of the nonpartisan races for state judgeships and a nonpartisan local Board of Education race were decided with the May 19 vote count.

Since a number of partisan races were also decided and only two front-runners advance in each runoff, the June 16 ballots are much shorter than May’s. (They also don’t have anything comparable to the “ballot questions” that amounted to opinion polls on position statements posed by the political parties.)

In Bulloch, the Republican runoff ballot contains six or seven races, depending on your commission district, while the Democratic ballot carries five races.

The GOP ballot

A race for the Republican nomination for one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats tops that party’s ballot.

The contenders, who emerged from a crowded May 19 primary field, are Mike Collins, currently U.S. representative from Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, and Derek Dooley, the former college football coach and player. The winner June 16 will be the Republican candidate to challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff in the Nov. 3 general election.

Next on the GOP ballot is the much-publicized runoff between businessman Rick Jackson and current Lt. Gov. Burt Jones for the GOP nomination for governor. The winner will face Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, in the general election, since she won her Democratic primary outright over six other candidates.

Down the Republican ballot and only in Bulloch County Board of Commissioners District 2 but certainly of local interest, incumbent Commissioner Toby Conner faces a continued challenge from Dr. Ted Redman.

Conner ran a little short of an outright 50%-plus-one win in the May 19 primary, with 49.48% of the vote to Redman’s 32.44%. Third candidate Frank Bedell was eliminated with just over 18%. But runoffs often draw fewer, and not necessarily all the same, voters.

One Republican primary challenger candidate from this region, Candler County School Superintendent Fred “Bubba” Longgrear, is now in a statewide runoff for state school superintendent with incumbent State Superintendent Richard Woods. With 49.88% of votes in the primary, Woods came close to winning, while Longgrear was second with 29.1%. The runoff winner between those two will face a Democratic nominee, Lydia Powell, in November.

Other Republican runoffs on the June 16 ballot are those between Greg Dolezal and John F. Kennedy for the lieutenant governor nomination; Tim Fleming and Vernon Jones for the secretary of state nomination; and Bobby Mehan and Josh Tolbert for the nomination for Public Service Commissioner from District 5.

Democratic ballot

The top statewide contest on the Democratic Party runoff ballot is the race for the party’s lieutenant governor nomination between Josh McLaurin, who is a current state senator from the 14th District, and Nabilah Parkes, the recent former state senator from District 7.

Here in Georgia’s 12th Congressional District, Democratic Party voters in the runoff will also be choosing their party’s nominee for the seat in Congress between Traci “Acree” George and Ceretta Smith. The primary runoff winner will challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, the Republican nominee, in the Nov. 3 general election.

Other races on the Democratic ballot for June 16 include the contests between Dana Barrett and Penny Brown Reynolds for the party’s secretary of state nomination; between DeAndre Mathis and Keisha Sean Waites for the insurance commissioner nomination; and between Nikki Porcher and Michelle Michi Sanchez for the labor commissioner nomination.

Registered Georgia voters can go online to the state My Voter Page at 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 — when one becomes available. However, these were not available for the runoff yet as of Monday.

Still, the My Voter Page also provides a way to check your registration status and find your Election Day poll location.

Jones plans to publish a generic sample ballot for all of Bulloch County in the Thursday, June 4, print and e-Edition of the Statesboro Herald.