Bulloch County’s Board of Elections and Registration certified local results of the May 21 general primary and nonpartisan general election Tuesday. So the process is now underway for the June 18 runoff between incumbent Jappy Stringer and challenger Nick G. Newkirk for county Board of Commissioners District 2, Seat C.

It is the only race in the runoff here, and there is no statewide runoff.

In-person early voting is scheduled for Monday-Friday, June 10-14, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. in the elections office at the County Annex, 113 North Main St., Suite 201.  The deadline to request a mailed absentee ballot is June 7. Election Day voting will be available 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday, June 18 in voters’ assigned precincts.

The Newkirk versus Stringer contest will appear only on a Republican ballot, and the only people eligible to vote in the runoff are registered voters who live in County Commission District 2 and did not use the Democratic Party ballot to vote in the May primary.

Citizens who voted using the Democratic ballot in the primary or who live in Commission District 1 are not eligible to vote in this runoff, noted county Election Supervisor Shontay Jones. But any Commission District 2 registered voters who either did not vote at all in the May 21 primary or voted only the nonpartisan ballot may vote in the runoff, as may all of those in District 2 who voted using the Republican ballot, she confirmed.

“We give an explanation of who can vote and who cannot vote,” Jones said, noting a one-page information sheet she gave to citizens and media at Tuesday’s Board of Elections meeting. “We know that people won’t read this and they’ll come to our office anyway, but we try to be very specific as to who is eligible to vote in this election and who would not be eligible to vote in this election.”

Commission District 2 includes roughly two-thirds of Bulloch County’s population and elects four commissioners, not all in the same election cycle. Because of the way voting precincts are drawn separately from candidate districts, all 16 of the county’s precinct voting places have some voters eligible to vote in this runoff and will be open on Election Day, she said.

Their May 21 count

In the final results of the May 21 election as certified one week later, Newkirk had 3,166 votes, or almost 47% of the total in what was then a three-candidate race, while Stringer received 2,707 votes, or about 40.2%, and Brian Pfund 866 votes, or a little less than 13%.

With only two members of the three-member Board of Elections and Registration — chair Theresa Jackson and vice chair William Daughtry — present for the 1:30 p.m. May 28 called meeting, Daughtry made each motion and Jackson seconded, so the votes were 2-0. The third member, board secretary Jim Benton, was reportedly expected to come by later to sign off on the certification.

Before voting to certify the results, Daughtry first made and Jackson seconded a motion to accept 11 provisional ballots held from election night until the 5 p.m. Friday, May 24, deadline, and to reject four others.

Provisional ballots

Each of the 11 accepted, and now counted, provisional ballots, including seven Republican and four Democratic ballots, had been cast by Bulloch County registered voters who showed up at the wrong precinct between 5 p.m. and the 7 p.m. close of polls on Election Day. Under current Georgia law, out-of-precinct, in-county provisional ballots are permitted only after 5 p.m. on Election Day, the theory being that before 5 p.m. voters still have time to travel to the correct polling place, Jones has explained.

The four rejected provisional ballots included three by people who believed they were “timely registered,” but whose Georgia Department of Driver Safety record and elections office correspondence reportedly indicated they opted out of an opportunity to register properly. One was a Republican-ballot voter actually registered in Screven County, another a Republican-ballot voter registered in Dougherty County, and the third was a would-be Democratic voter apparently not registered, according to Jones’ report.

DDS records are involved because under Georgia’s “motor voter” law, eligible citizens are automatically registered to vote when they obtain a driver’s license, unless they opt out.

The fourth rejected provisional was an absentee-by-mail paper ballot whose voter did not include all  required  identifying information and who did not respond  to mail or email requests to fix this by 5 p.m. May 17, Jones  reported.

The 11 accepted provisional ballots added a few votes for some candidates, but not enough to change the outcome of any race. For example, Newkirk picked up three more votes, and Stringer also three more, after their election-night totals.

No BOE recount

None of the provisional ballot votes went to either candidate in the closest local race of May 21, that between challenger Lisha Nevil and incumbent Heather Mims for the District 7 seat on the nonpartisan Bulloch County Board of Education.

Nevil is now the official winner, having received 630 votes to 622 for Mims, whose term lasts through December, with Nevil to succeed her in January.

With just an eight-vote difference, Mims had called the elections office about the possibility of a recount. But Jones told her that, under state election law, the authorized margin where a recount must be held if requested is half of 1 percent (0.5%) or less. Mims received 49.68% to Nevil’s 50.32%, a 0.64% difference, just slightly more than the trigger margin.

County Attorney Jeff Akins, who attended Tuesday’s election board meeting, agreed with Jones’ interpretation and said that if the margin had been within 0.5%, Mims would have needed to submit her recount request in writing within two days after the vote certification.

“I don’t think y’all have the authority to order a recount unless there’s some statutory basis, and there’s simply not in this case,” Akins told election board members.