With 56.4% of Bulloch County voters' participating in Tuesday's U.S. Senate and Georgia PSC statewide runoffs, including the three weeks of early voting that preceded it, local turnout reached historic levels for a runoff.

But it still fell short of the Nov. 3 turnout for the presidential election, which was 67.6%.

A total of 26,130 Bulloch voters participated in the runoff, including 10,694 who filed through the county's 15 voting precincts Tuesday. But more than half of the local voters, 15,436, including 9,912 who voted early in-person and 5,524 who completed absentee paper ballots, had voted before Tuesday, the traditional Election Day.

Majorities of Bulloch County voters chose the Republican candidates in all three contests on the ballots.

In the regular election for a six-year U.S. Senate term, Bulloch's local count was 16,288 votes for incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue to 9,808 for Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff. In the special election for the remainder of a U.S. Senate term through 2022, the Bulloch count was 16,264 votes for Republican appointed incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler to 8,824 for Democratic challenger the Rev. Raphael Warnock.

Both Senate races were much closer statewide, with Associated Press reports showing Warnock winning to become Georgia's first black U.S. senator, and Ossoff defeating Perdue to give Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.

In the third race on the ballot, Lauren Bubba McDonald Jr., a Republican incumbent on the state Public Service Commission, or PSC, captured 16,408 Bulloch County votes while Democratic challenger Daniel Blackman got 9,391.

McDonald also won statewide, to keep his seat on the PSC, which regulates utilities.

Double precinct

Two of Bulloch County's usual 16 Election Day precincts, Fair Precinct and the Pittman Park Precinct, were combined into one voting place Tuesday. The county board Board of Elections and Registration issued an emergency decision for this last week when Fair Precinct's poll manager and assistant poll manager were affected by COVID-19 isolation or quarantines.

The move allowed Pittman Park's experienced poll officers to oversee both precincts. Signs, and two poll workers at the doors of the Pittman Park United Methodist Church social hall directed voters to the "Fair" side or the "Pittman Park" side. The workers also provided gloves and hand sanitizer from a little table.

Debra Nessmith, long the Pittman Park poll manager, continued in that role on her precinct's side of the big room and oversaw the operation. Meanwhile, Bob Marsh, usually the Pittman Park assistant manager, stepped up as poll manager of the Fair side.

By 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, half an hour before the polls closed, about 735 Pittman Park voters and about 1,100 Fair Precinct voters had cast ballots on the touchscreen machines, all in the one room. But in past years, more than 2,000 voters from the Pittman Park precinct alone had filed through on a single Election Day, Nessmith said.

But she noted that many Georgia Southern University students, a large part of the Pittman Park crowd, were still out of town on Jan. 5. Also, majorities of both precincts' voters had voted early or absentee.

"It's gone really smooth and good," Nessmith said. "We did a complete separation and just ran it as two separate precincts."

Marsh said the flow of voters on the Fair side had been steady throughout the day.