Bulloch County's 16 traditional Election Day precincts have polls open 7 a.m.–7 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, for their assigned voters who haven't voted early or absentee in the Democratic and Republican party primary runoffs.

A little over 5% of Bulloch's active registered voters had voted early or absentee when the five days of in-person early voting ended at 5 p.m. Friday.

But in this continuation from the May primaries, Republican-ballot voters in multi-seat Board of Commissioners District 2, which includes about two-thirds of Bulloch County's population, are deciding the finish of the race for Seat 2-B between current Commissioner Toby Conner and challenger Dr. Ted Redman. They emerged as the front-runners, but neither with 50% of the vote, from a three-candidate contest in the May 19 primary.

Meanwhile, the runoff races for the Republican nominations for one of Georgia's two U.S. Senate seats and for governor top the Republican ballot statewide. For Democratic-ballot voters, the top statewide contest is for the party's nomination for lieutenant governor, while a regional race will determine a Democratic nominee for the District 12 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Commission race

Conner, the incumbent in the Seat 2-B commissioner race, was first elected in 2022 when he won a runoff. Back when he first ran for the seat, he identified managing growth and improving infrastructure and services as top issues.

"Those have turned out to be the majority of all the issues," Conner said in an April 2026 interview. "You know, growth is still an issue; it's going to be an issue from here on out until this boom decides to quit or the market lets it quit. People want to come to Bulloch County. That's part of it."

A fifth-generation farmer, Conner, 41, farms and resides in the Stilson-Leefield area. In earlier years — before he ran the first time — he had worked 17 years for the Georgia Ports Authority as a stevedore. His wife, Kelsey Conner, is CEO and owner of the Brooklet-based manufacturing company American Aero. They have two school-age children.

Redman, "semi-retired ER doctor," U.S. Army veteran and now a volunteer firefighter, said he decided to run for the commission seat after the property tax on his family home doubled. He vowed to vote "no" on any millage rate increase.

"Like everyone else I've seen my property taxes double over the past several years, and I've seen people go to county commission meetings getting up and talking to the commissioners about their troubles with property taxes and there's a lot of concern about people getting priced out of their homes," Redman said in April.

Now 54, he retired from the Army at the rank of lieutenant colonel after 25 years service. He had gone to Uniformed Services University for medical school and completed his residency during a four-year break from the military. His military career, he has stated, included 13 combat deployments as an Army Ranger and member of Task Force 160.

He and his wife, Autumn Redman, have lived in Bulloch County since 2020, and own a home on Clito Road. He has seven children, "most out of the house now."

Two party ballots

This runoff election is like two separate elections for the political parties, and at this stage many voters do not get to choose their ballot, having been locked in by their May 19 ballot choice.

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. Georgia law prohibits switching from one party to another to do "crossover" voting when a runoff is a continuation of the party primaries. 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 this runoff.

Other GOP races

The Republican U.S. Senate 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, whether Collins or Dooley, 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.

One Republican primary challenger candidate from this region, Candler County School Superintendent Fred "Bubba" Longgrear, is in a statewide runoff for state school superintendent with incumbent State Superintendent Richard Woods. The 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 races

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 are also 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.

Early turnout stats

In five days of early voting, last Monday through Friday, 2,521 Bulloch County residents voted early in-person, while another 207 had returned, as having been completed, absentee ballots, according to the Election Data Hub maintained by the Georgia Secretary of State's Office.

The absentee number included some ballots continuing to arrive by mail and back at the county election headquarters into Monday afternoon. Previously mailed-out absentee ballots can be counted if returned there by the close of polls at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Combined, the 2,521 early in-person, and 207 absentee voters in Bulloch totaled 2,728 voters, or 5.4% of the county's 50,665 "active" registered voters, as reported on the state hub. Statewide, 460,344 Georgia voters had voted early in-person through Friday's close, and 27,660 absentee ballots had been accepted as of Monday afternoon, for a running total given as 486,174 early and absentee, or 6.6% turnout statewide, of 7,358,462 active Georgia voters, the Elections Division of the Secretary of State's Office reported at that point.

Of the 2,521 Bulloch County early in-person voters who cast ballots last week, 2,094 used the Republican ballot and 427 the Democratic ballot. But again, the one remaining local primary race and the only statewide primary races for offices above the rank of lieutenant governor are those continuing from the Republican primary, and ballot choice is not open at this point.