What if they held an election and no one came?

That was nearly the case last month when only about 2.4% of Georgia's roughly 8.4 million registered voters cast ballots in Republican and Democratic primaries for seats on the state Public Service Commission (PSC), which regulates utilities.

The low turnout likely will be even more dismal Tuesday when Democratic primary voters return to the polls to choose the party's nominee for the PSC's District 3 seat. With incumbent Commissioner Tim Echols having won the Republican nod to seek reelection in District 2 in last month's GOP primary, the Democratic contest in District 3 will be the only race on Tuesday's runoff ballot.

In Bulloch County turnout was even worse, as the June 17 PSC special primary drew just 2% of active, registered voters in 16 days of early voting plus one final Election Day in which all 16 of the county's voting precincts were staffed for 12 hours. 

But on Tuesday, only one precinct will be open for voting — the social hall at Statesboro Primitive Baptist Church on South Zetterower Avenue, where residents of the "Church Precinct" usually vote. The single polling station will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The three-member Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration voted to invoke a legal clause that allows the county to be reduce its precincts to a single Election Day location for a one-party runoff in a special circumstance. That circumstance is that fewer than 1% of the county's registered voters participated in the affected political party's original primary.

In the Democratic primary, neither former Atlanta City Councilwoman Keisha Sean Waites nor clean-energy advocate Peter Hubbard won a majority of the vote in last month's three-way Democratic primary in District 3, which covers Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties, forcing the runoff. Former utility regulator and technology executive Robert Jones finished third and was eliminated.

Both candidates have criticized the five-member commission — all Republicans — as a rubber stamp for Atlanta-based Georgia Power, signing off on a series of rate increases in recent years without sufficiently considering the impacts of rising monthly bills on the company's residential and small business customers.

The winner of the Democratic primary between Hubbard and Waites will challenge incumbent Republican Commissioner Fitz Johnson in November.