If you’re antsy to pull your touch-screen trigger finger, early voting began this week for the upcoming July 22 primary runoff election.
Early birds can hit the polls at the county’s elections office at 140 Stonewall Avenue in downtown Fayetteville from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday through July 18. Also, the week of July 14-18 polls will also be open at the Peachtree City Library and Tyrone Town Hall from 8 a.m. through 5 p.m. each day.
Early voting got off to a quick start Monday with about 80 residents casting ballots, but the pace trickled a bit slower on Tuesday, according to Fayette County Elections Supervisor Tom Sawyer.
Those who miss out on early voting will have to wait until election day on July 22 and visit their regular voting precinct. One exception is that voters for precinct 11 in Peachtree City (the Glenloch Recreation Center) must go to the precinct 20 location at Peachtree City United Methodist Church, officials said. The recreation center has summer recreation programs and will not have room to accommodate voting, officials said.
There are two local races to be decided: the Republican race for the District 16 seat in the Georgia Senate and the Post 4 Republican race for the Fayette County Board of Education.
The Senate race pits Tyrone insurance agent Marty Harbin against Fayetteville attorney David Studdard. With no Democratic competition qualified for the November election, the winner of this race will take office Jan. 1 replacing the retiring Senator Ronnie Chance.
The BoE race pits retired McIntosh High School teacher Diane Basham against teacher and musician Jane Owens.
In the primary, Basham was the top vote getter with 38.8 percent of the votes, followed by John Kimbell with 36.1 percent, forcing a runoff between the two. But days later, Kimbell bowed out due to a residency issue, which meant that Owens despite her third-place finish with 14.7 percent of the vote, would advance to the runoff election against Basham.
Other Republican races on the ballot include the U.S. Senate race with longtime U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston facing businessman David Perdue and the state school superintendent contest with Mike Buck facing Richard Woods.
There is only one statewide race on the Democratic ballot, as Alisha Thomas Morgan faces Valarie D. Wilson for state school superintendent.
