Polk County voters mostly mirror state runoff results

There were no local or congressional district races on the ballot for Polk County voters in last week’s general primary runoff election, but the few — very few — voters who did cast their votes mostly mirrored the state’s overall results.

With only Democratic statewide races on the ballot for Georgia’s runoff elections Tuesday, June 21, only those who voted on the Democratic ballot in the May 24 primary were able to vote in the runoff. And thanks to Senate Bill 202, the period of time between a general election and the runoff election is shortened from nine weeks to four weeks.

Just 192 votes were cast by Polk County voters in the runoff, compared to 1,077 Democratic ballots cast in last month’s primary out of a total of 8,104. The small turnout — about 17.8% — led to no lines either during early in-person voting or at the precincts Tuesday, according to County Elections Director Noah Beck.

Two provisional ballots were cast on election day with those set to be adjudicated by the county elections office by the end of the week.

Statewide, lawyer and former attorney general candidate Charlie Bailey topped Kwanza Hall, a former member of the Atlanta school board and city council, for the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor.

Bailey finished ahead in Polk County 115-75. He will face Republican candidate Burt Jones in the November general election.

State Rep. Bee Nguyen easily won the Democratic nomination for secretary of state, besting former State Rep. Dee Dee Dawkins-Haigler by a wide margin.

The first Vietnamese-American to win election to the Georgia House, Nguyen took Polk County 153-36. Should Nguyen defeat GOP incumbent Brad Raffensperger on Nov. 8, she would be the first Asian American elected to statewide political office in Georgia.

In the runoff for the Democratic nominee for labor commissioner, State Rep. William Boddie defeated former political media consultant and television reporter Nicole Horn.

Boddie was the popular choice in Polk County as well, getting 127 votes to Horn’s 62. He will face Republican candidate Bruce Thompson in the November general election.

Janice Laws Robinson took the party’s nomination for insurance commissioner over Raphael Baker in the statewide results. In a rare occurrence, both candidates received 94 votes from Polk County voters according to the uncertified results made available last Tuesday night. Robinson will face Republican incumbent John King in the November general election.

The mid-term general election is set for Nov. 3. Polk County voters will be asked to decide on the race for U.S. Congressional District 14 representative as GOP incumbent Marjorie Taylor Greene takes on Democratic candidate Marcus Flowers. All other races are statewide offices, including U.S. Senate and governor.