Polk sees unprecedented turnout for primary
Elections director gives report on May 24 election to county commissioners
Nearly two and a half times as many voters cast ballots in Polk County’s’ 2022 general primary when compared to the last midterm primary, according to numbers released by the county elections office.
That stat was one of many items addressed by Elections Director Noah Beck during last week’s work session of the Polk County Commission on Monday, June 6.
Beck, who was hired as the county’s elections chief in March, said he was extremely proud of his staff and the poll workers who accomplished the task of providing a secure and efficient election despite the large increase in voter turnout.
“I want to brag on our poll workers. And I will admit that poll workers are the linchpin of what we do,” Beck told the commissioners.
“If people didn’t care about the community enough to get involved to be a poll worker then election day wouldn’t happen. Early voting wouldn’t happen. Because the election staff is only a few people strong.”
The final tally for May’s general primary was 8,104 voters for Polk County, a 30.75% voter turnout and an increase from 3,346 in the 2018 midterm primary.
“This is an unprecedented turnout for a midterm,” Beck said.
“You can never expect that to be as large as it will be in November, but still, 30% in Polk County for the general primary for midterms is pretty significant.”
May’s primary featured partisan elections for Georgia governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. 14th Congressional
District and other statewide races, as well as local elections for county commissioner and state representative that were decided on the Republican ballot.
The nonpartisan race for Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit Court judge between incumbent Ming Lem and Cedartown attorney Andrew Roper also drew local voters to the polls. Roper won with 59.2% of the vote from both Polk and Haralson counties.
Polk County maintained a strong republican representation with 6,980, or 86.13%, of voters selecting the Republican ballot, and 1,077, of 13,3%, selecting Democrat. Only 47 nonpartisan ballots were cast, which included only judicial races.
A total of 3,917 ballots were cast in person during early voting in Polk
County, while 3,907 people voted on election day at one of seven precincts.
“With the election day turnout, which was double what we had expected, the first concern for any elections director in any county is going to be operational capacity,” Beck said.
“When you plan to see about 4,000 voters total in an election and then you see that before you even get out of early voting ... you want to make sure that everything is still remaining secure, the chain of custody isn’t being broken, those kinds of things.”
Beck said his staff and elections board took extra steps such as daily reviews and audits of absentee voting during the weeks leading up to election day, and tightening election equipment security and surveillance, including the placement and supervision of the absentee ballot drop box inside the county annex building where the elections office is located.
The elections office also performed voluntary risk-limiting audits in the days following the election and made sure to have contingency procedures in place for such events as the two times the statewide E-Net voter registration system crashed during early voting or a power outage at the Rockmart early voting location.
The work is not done for Beck and his team as they are preparing for the upcoming primary runoff on June 21. That will consist of four Democratic statewide races where no candidate surpassed the 50%-plus one limit needed to secure the party’s nomination.
The offices are lieutenant governor, secretary of state, insurance commissioner and labor commissioner.
Early in-person voting is being held through Friday, June 17 at the Polk County Elections Office in the county annex building, 144 West Ave., Cedartown, and at the Nathan Dean Community Center in Rockmart, 604 Goodyear Ave., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In order to vote in the runoff, a person must have voted on the Democrat ballot in the primary.