Election Day: Augusta-area voters making many local and partisan choices
Area Democrats will pick U.S. House and Senate nominees, a sheriff and a coroner while Republicans are choosing nominees for district attorney, state senator and representative and county commissioner in party primaries Tuesday.
Several local contested nonpartisan races will appear on all ballots, including for Richmond County Marshal, Augusta Commission and Columbia County school board, as will a referendum on extending the TSPLOST, the 10-year sales tax for transportation.
With COVID-19 prompting a state vote-by-mail effort, the elections postponed from May 19 and the presidential primary moved to the Tuesday ticket, many have already cast ballots.
As of Friday, more than 24,700 voters had cast ballots, either by mail or in person at advance voting sites in Richmond County. Nearly 14,000 had already voted in Columbia County.
“We don’t expect to see as many come to the polls to vote,” said Lynn Bailey, executive director for Richmond County Board of Elections. “We expect to see fewer faces and that was the whole idea.”
Total turnout in the 2016 primary and nonpartisan election was 28% and so far, 18.5% of registered voters had cast ballots in Richmond County at the end of advance voting Friday.
The pandemic prompted around 40 poll workers to cancel this year and the office is drawing from student workers and school system personnel to staff all 42 polling places from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Bailey said.
In Columbia County, “we are as ready as we are going to be,” said Nancy Gay, elections director. “This has been the longest election of my life.”
Polling places will be sanitized and stocked with supplies Tuesday. Bailey advised voters to avoid peak times of 7-9 a.m. and 5-7 p.m. and wear a clean mask, as well as bring one of the six accepted forms of identification.
Voters who obtained absentee ballots but did not return them should bring them along to the polls Tuesday to avoid delays or having to vote using a provisional ballot, she said.
Closely-watched area races include that for state Senate District 23 after Sen. Jesse Stone opted not to run again. The district runs from eastern Columbia County south to Johnson and Screven counties.
On the GOP ballot for the seat are Columbia County Commissioner Trey Allen and former U.S. Rep. Max Burns of Sylvania. The winner will face Democrat Ceretta Smith, of Grovetown, in November.
Running for Allen’s Martinez-area District 2 commission seat in the GOP primary are four men. They are former Allen opponent and watchdog Lee Benedict, business manager Mark Petersen, bank vice president Don Skinner and military retiree Bob Willis.
Also hotly contested is the race for Augusta Circuit District Attorney, who prosecutes cases in the circuit’s Richmond, Columbia and Burke counties.
Tuesday will decide the GOP nominee — incumbent Natalie Paine or challenger Jason Hasty — who will face Democrat Jared Williams in November.
Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree faces newcomer Randy Clewis, a school police officer, on the Democratic primary ballot. No Republicans have signed up.
Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen faces a challenge from sheriff’s Sgt. Cory Carlyle on the Democratic ballot. The winner has no GOP opposition in November.
Richmond County Marshal Ramone Lamkin is being challenged for the nonpartisan seat by Sheriff’s deputy Troy Moses, who was hospitalized after a Broad Street crash Tuesday.
Always scrutinized are elections to the nonpartisan Augusta Commission, where three seats are coming open due to term limits.
In commission District 1, Democratic Party official Dolly Jones Frazier, downtown business owner Shawnda Griffin, party chairman Jordan Johnson, human resources professional and activist Von Pouncey and rental property owner Michael Thurman each appear on the Tuesday ballot.
If none of the four get a majority of votes from the downtown and East Augusta district, the race heads to an Aug. 11 runoff.
District 3, which runs from Summerville to the Jimmie Dyess Parkway area, has four running Tuesday, making a runoff possible.
Candidates to replace term-limited Mary Davis are consultant and former planning commission chairman Robert Cooks, former teacher and daughter of former commissioner Grady Smith Catherine Smith McKnight, small business owner Sean Mooney and retired educator Lori Myles.
Lastly in Super District 9 - which covers regular districts 1, 2, 4 and 5 - has five candidates including former Commissioner Corey Johnson and retired state employee Francine Scott.
Also running are retired business owner Charles Cummings, former educator Gregory Hall and activist and small business owner Jo’Rae Francine Jenkins.
Appearing on ballots across 13 counties is the CSRA-district Transportation Investment Act sales tax, which voters first approved in 2012. A new project list has been formulated if a majority of district voters approve a referendum renewing the 10-year tax.
The Columbia County GOP ballot has eight nonbinding ballot questions covering topics such as alternatives to public school, making school board posts partisan, allowing bars in the county, closing party primaries and food stamps.
Democrats in both counties will be asked about climate change, nonpartisan redistricting, cash bail and other topics.
In state House District 33, which covers a northern sliver of Columbia County, Lincoln and McDuffie then extends west to Gwinnett, retiring Rep. Tom McCall, of Elberton, has three men pursuing the GOP nomination.
The candidates are Watkinsville realtor Bruce Azevedo, Elberton attorney Rob Leverett and former Madison County commissioner Tripp Strickland.
Democrats pursue U.S. Senate, 10th and 12th Congressional seats in Congress
Voters weigh in Tuesday on who to send to Washington, D.C. next year.
In the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, voters statewide will choose between poll-leader Jon Ossoff, businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico, former Columbus, Ga., mayor Teresa Tomlinson and a handful of others to face GOP Sen. David Perdue in November.
Four Democrats are running for the nominations to face the area’s two Republican congressmen on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
Two are seeking the 10th Congressional District U.S. House Seat held by Monroe Republican Jody Hice, a pastor and radio host.
Pursing the Democratic nomination are longtime Athens resident and journalist Andrew Ferguson and nurse Tabitha Johnson-Green, who won the 2018 Democratic primary but lost to Hice.
In the 12th Congressional District, Dan Steiner, a former Indiana attorney, and Liz Johnson, a retiree and longtime state party volunteer, are seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge GOP incumbent Rick Allen in November.