Runoff right around the corner for County Commission races

A positive change was reported by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger this past week following election results going up, noting that Polk County was the first to get up their early voting numbers before anyone else in the state during a press conference following the May 21 local and state primaries.

Raffensperger noted that Polk County won the “competition” between the 159 counties during the conclusion of last week’s election cycle, getting those up at exactly 7 p.m.

“For the presidential primary, I gave a shoutout to Floyd County because they posted their results at 7:02. That apparently got a competition going, and so Polk County posted their results at 7:00, they had their results up early and so they win the prize for this cycle,” Raffensperger said during the press conference.

Elections Director Noah Beck was also happy with the positive remarks and progress made on election night reporting. Polk has traditionally in the past been one of the last counties to finish up election night reporting.

“We are thankful to our hardworking polling staff that make this possible as well as all of our stakeholders,” Beck said. “The Board of Elections, county administration, staff, local political parties, media partners, and vendors work diligently to support us in our endeavors to provide the best service possible to Polk County Voters. We believe part of this service is providing election results on election night as quick as possible to the public, and we are proud to be the first for this last election.”

The certification of the May 21 primary was wrapped up on Tuesday, and now the Elections Office will be conducting an 100% of the results that on Thursday and Friday coming up. Beck reported no issues with the certification, and does not expect any problems with the audit.

Now the county is moving onto the next step in the process: a runoff race in the two contested County Commission primaries.

Incumbent Jordan Hubbard is facing Michael Gravett for the District 1 seat after the field was narrowed from 4 to 2 candidates. The pair took the majority of the vote after results were posted, and move onto the runoff date coming up on June 18. Early voting will only be for a week for the runoff, starting on June 10 in both Cedartown and Rockmart.

The County Commission races are countywide for voters who participated, and both are on the GOP ballot.

The second of those races are between incumbent Ray Carter and challenger John Paschal. The two moved onto the runoff race after the field was narrowed from 3 to 2 during the primary, with neither candidate getting the 50%+1 vote they needed to win the race.

Check back for additional updates as they become available.