Results are still being tallied statewide, but Polk County once again was first across the finish line to report on the state level – though the turnout was low enough to make it little more than a light chore.
Locally, most of the races ended with a clear result for Public Service Commission primaries – a redo race that was supposed to happen three years ago, but was caught up in a court battle that ultimately played out with the conclusion of today’s races.
Based on results at 9:15 p.m., at least one of those races is heading into a runoff.
On the GOP side, Tim Echols took a clear victory locally for the PSC’s District 2 ballot spot, defeating Lee Muns in a 189-162 finish. Fitz Johnson was the only one to run for the District 3 GOP race, so he won without a real race to win with 290 votes cast for him locally.
The Democratic turnout for the two races was just 124 voters – and based on statewide results at least one of the seats is going to a runoff. Alicia Johnson was the only Democrat to run for the PSC District 2 race and took the 124 votes without opposition, but the District 3 race had three candidates vying for the spot on the November ballot.
Keisha Sean Waites took a narrow win with 49 votes locally, while Peter Hubbard took 38 and Robert Jones too 35.
All told, some 351 voters out of Polk County’s 27,295 registered voters took part in this round of balloting for primaries.
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It made the Elections Office’s job tonight almost as easy as clicking a few buttons and being able to go home. It also meant that Elections Director Noah Beck left with a smile on his face, for yet again his office was the first to get results in statewide for the preliminary tally, and in the first group of five counties to finish their full election results for the night.
“We’re happy with our showing, it was a pretty clean night for us,” he said.
Since it was expected to be a low turnout election night, his office also took proactive steps to ensure that it didn’t cost too much to run. That included utilizing only a single early voting location for the three weeks prior to today’s primary, and keeping the staffing levels as low as possible.
“Polk County leaders made a lot of decisions to save our taxpayers money in an election that we had suspected was going to lead to a low turnout, and based on the numbers so far we made a lot of correct decisions to ensure that everything went smoothly and didn’t cost too much in our resources for elections this year,” Beck said.
Based on statewide results as of 9:15 p.m. (ish) the District 3 race for the Democratic primary is heading for a run-off, with Waites just a few percentage points away from getting to 50% + 1 vote needed to win outright.
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If it does, County Elections officials will need to propose some additional cost-saving measures to ensure they don’t go over budget for the fiscal year. They’ll have new budget money for November’s election, but those might include more items as referendums are expected to be added to the off-year ballot before the summer is over.
Those wondering what the Public Service Commission does, they are a board who decide on utility rates that are allowed to be assessed by companies like Georgia Power for electrical service, but also oversee other areas that are considered public utilities. It began as the Railroad Commission, but as utilities expanded in 1922 they became the Public Service Commission and began regulating electric, natural gas, railroad, telephones and many other companies that utilize public rights of way to deliver services to customers across Georgia.
Check back for further updates as needed.
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