GOP wins Secretary of State, Public Service Commission District

Georgia’s GOP candidate for the Secretary of State will be taking office in January 2019 after results in last Tuesday’s run-off ended in Brad Raffensperger’s favor.

He won statewide by a margin of 51.97 to 48.03 percent over Democrat John Barrow in the run-off race. Polk County joined with the rest of the state to determine who would be the next person to fill the job, and went with Raffensperger 79.13 percent to 20.87 percent for Barrow in local voting.

Elections Director Lee Ann George said there were no major issues during the December 4 run-off election at the polls, and that tallies were all completed in a much easier process that concluded just two hours after precincts closed for the year.

A total of 4,456 votes were tallied in Polk County for the run-off, well below the numbers that came out during the 2018 midterm election in November.

The county also helped select the new District 3 Public Service Commissioner, helping return Chuck Eaton to the post. The GOP member of the commission won 3,430 votes locally to the 993 earned by Democrat Lindy Miller. Overall, Eaton won 51.83 percent to 48.17 percent.

Eaton will return to his seat in January 2019.

Last week’s vote wrapped up the campaign season for 2018, but it’ll be right back into business in the months to come.

George said that upcoming municipal elections will start in 2019 for Cedartown, Rockmart and Aragon posts with advertising qualification requirements in February. Check back after the beginning of the year for more on posts that are up for vote on Aragon and Rockmart City Councils, and the Cedartown City Commission.