Surprisingly few voters showed up in the first five weekdays of advanced voting in Bulloch County for the May 21 primary election, especially considering the apparent interest earlier this year and the number of local races, observed county Election Supervisor Shontay Jones. This Saturday, May 4, is the first of two Saturdays when early voting is also available.

Saturday voting starts one hour later than weekday early voting. So the Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration office in the County Annex, 113 N. Main St., Suite 201, Statesboro, is open for that purpose 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. this Saturday, and will be again next Saturday, May 11.

That same location, which is the only place to vote early in Bulloch during this election, will be open for voters 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, May 6-10, and again Monday-Friday, May 13-17.

The 17-day early voting opportunity began Monday, April 29, so Friday, May 3, was the fifth day. Jones had a few extra poll workers on duty, and an arrangement of ropes and stanchion posts set up in the lobby to help guide a potential crowd. But at midafternoon, voters were trickling in one at a time.

“Very slow, surprisingly slow voter turnout, I would say,” Jones said. “And what I mean by slow is, when I even look back to what we did in May of 2022 – and I’ll have to look at that (later) – I just would have thought that after citizens had voiced so many concerns earlier in the year that, now that we’re at this election, we would have been busier.”

Just 1.6% so far

From 8 a.m. Monday through about 4:30 p.m. Friday, a total of 752 Bulloch County registered voters had cast ballots early in-person, using the touchscreen voting machines. Another 82 had voted absentee, most by returning paper ballots that had been mailed to them (A very small number of electronic absentee ballots, cast by military personnel or U.S. citizens living overseas, the only people allowed to vote absentee that way, are also included.)

So, that made a total of 834 participating voters so far, or 1.6% of Bulloch County’s 51,481 registered voters. But two weeks of early voting opportunity remained, including the two Saturdays.

“Now, we always expect to be busier the very last week, because we know many people will wait to vote,” said Jones. “But it always also concerns me, you know, when you have so many offices, and if you look at the sample ballot, a lot of these offices have opposition that don’t always have opposition.”

So, she said, she likes to encourage everyone who can and will to vote early to avoid lines on Election Day.

“We’re going to always have those Election Day voters that believe Election Day is the only day that counts, but we do early voting here by record numbers, so again, this is just one of  those that surprises me,” she said.

On May 21, all 16 of Bulloch County’s traditional precinct voting places will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Absentee deadline

Meanwhile, any voters who wish to vote absentee and still need a ballot should submit their applications next week. Friday, May 10, is the deadline for the Elections Office staff to receive applications in order to process them and mail the ballots. Whether brought in person or mailed, the applications need to arrive at the office by 5 p.m. Friday. For absentee ballot  applications filed online through https://securemyabsenteeballot.sos.ga.gov/s/, the deadline is 11:59 p.m. Friday, she said.

This election is Georgia’s general primary and nonpartisan general election. It’s only the general election for nonpartisan offices, including seats on the Bulloch County Board of Education, for which BOE District 3 and BOE District 7 have contested races – and several judgeships. But only one seat on the Georgia Supreme Court and one on the state Court of Appeals have contested races.

Choose a party

For offices for which candidates choose a political party, this is a primary election, and voters must choose either the Democratic or the Republican ballot to participate in the primary and help one party or the other choose its nominees. That choice is binding through a possible June 18 primary runoff, but not in the Nov. 5 general election.

Most local races between two or more candidates, including those for county commissioner seats, sheriff, district attorney and county coroner, are party primary races.

The race for Ogeechee Judicial Circuit district attorney between incumbent Daphne Jarriel Totten and challenger Robert Busbee; the race for Bulloch County Board of Commissioners chairman between incumbent Roy Thompson and challenger David Bennett; and the race for sheriff between incumbent Noel J. Brown and challenger Keith L. Howard are all occurring on the Republican ballot, since all of those candidates qualified as Republicans.

Meanwhile, the Democratic ballot features a couple of contested races. Democratic candidates Daniel “DJ” Jackson and Elizabeth “Liz” Johnson are contending for their party’s nomination for Georgia’s 12th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. One of those two will go on to challenge the incumbent Republican, Rep. Rick W. Allen, in the Nov. 5 general election.

Within Bulloch, the Democratic ballot also offers the first phase of the race for county coroner. Democratic candidates Matthew Lovett and Craig R. Tremble are facing off to see which will go up against Republican coroner candidate Chuck Francis in November.

See a sample ballot

As an election official, Jones cannot advise people which party’s ballot to choose. But she recommends that voters look at a sample ballot and decide for themselves, based on which races are important to them, before coming to vote.

Her summary version of the sample ballot appeared as a full-page ad on p. 23-A of the Thursday, may 2, Statesboro Herald print and e-Edition, still available in the racks and at Statesboroherald.com. Or printouts of sample ballots are available for free at the Elections Office. Or voters can see their district-specific sample ballot by going to the statewide My Voter Page, https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/ and following the prompts for their information.

There is no need to request a ballot for the nonpartisan seats, because the same nonpartisan ballot is included with both the Democratic Party ballot and the Republican Party ballot.

Again, the nonpartisan ballot contains only candidates for offices that are nonpartisan by law – here, judgeships and Board of Education seats. People who insist on voting only a “nonpartisan” ballot will be able to vote only for those offices. A few voters do this each primary election, but some who ask for just the nonpartisan ballot then ask why certain offices, such as sheriff, were not on their ballot, Jones said.

Breakout by party

The 752 Bulloch County in-person early ballots cast as of 4:30 p.m. Friday included 616 Republican, 131 Democratic, and five nonpartisan-only ballots. The 83 absentee ballots returned included 41 Democratic, 41 Republican and one nonpartisan-only.

Additionally, 96 Democratic, 141 Republican and five nonpartisan-only absentee ballots had been sent to voters at their request but not yet returned.

Absentee ballots can be counted if completed and returned by 7 p.m. on Election Day, May 21, but again, the deadline to request an absentee ballot is Friday, May 10.