Early voting to end Friday
♦ The governor backs GOP candidate Cagle over Kemp Monday in a runoff that’s drawn fewer than 800 Floyd Countians to the polls.
Voters have until 5 p.m. Friday to weigh in early on the neck-and-neck primary election runoff between Casey Cagle and Brian Kemp.
The two are battling to be the Republican nominee for governor in the Nov. 6 general election. Democrats have already selected Stacey Abrams as their candidate.
The runoff scheduled for
July 24 also will decide the Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and secretary of state, along with the Democrats’ nominee for state school superintendent.
Floyd County Election Technician Donna Maldonado said 636 people had cast ballots through Friday at the two early-voting sites in the county.
Of those, 559 chose the Republican ballot and 77 picked the Democratic ballot. The Elections Department also mailed out 107 Republican absentee ballots and 45 containing the Democratic race. Forty-six of the 152 absentee ballots were still out Monday.
“But, remember, mail-outs have until 7 p.m. on July 24 to return their ballots,” Maldonado said.
Any eligible Floyd County voter can walk in between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to vote at the County Administration Building, 12 E. Fourth Ave., or Garden Lakes Baptist Church, 2200 Redmond Circle. All 25 precincts will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Those who voted in a May partisan primary can’t cross over to the other party’s runoff. Those who didn’t vote in either are free to choose either ballot.
Cagle was the statewide favorite in May and he won handily in every Floyd County precinct. However, he failed to get more
than 50 percent to win the nomination outright. Kemp came in second, locally and statewide.
On Monday, Gov. Nathan Deal endorsed Cagle — saying the lieutenant governor has been his partner over the past eight years in making Georgia a pro-business state with a “red-hot” economy.
“I think he is the best one to continue this tradition,” Deal said. “My concern is, let’s not undo or transform in a negative fashion the good reforms that have been put in place.”
Cagle pledged to “build on the foundation that Gov. Deal has created.”
K e m p , t h e c u r r e n t secretary of state, called the endorsement an attempt to distract from the tightening race.
“I respect Gov. Deal. He built on the success of Gov. (Sonny) Perdue and I will continue that progress as Georgia’s next governor,” Kemp said.
Hunter Hill, the thirdplace finisher in the GOP governor race, is expected to endorse Kemp this afternoon.
Also on the Republican runoff ballot are former state Rep. Geoff Duncan and state Sen. David Shafer vying for the lieutenant governor slot and the secretary of state contest between former Alpharetta mayor David Belle Isle and state Rep. Brad Raffensperger.
Democrats are choosing either Otha Thornton Jr., a former president of the National Parent Teacher Association, or Sid Chapman, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, as their state school superintendent nominee.
Floyd County’s turnout for the May primary barely topped 20 percent. A total of 9,659 votes were cast in the Republican and Democratic governor races. About 69.6 percent of the voters pulled the Republican ballot and 25 percent voted in the Democratic primary. The rest voted only in the nonpartisan judges’ races.