Dual Elections Possible December 4th If There are Run-offs

With the possibility of at least one state run-of in Georgia on December 4th, coupled with the re-run of the State House District 28 race, the Stephens County Registrar’s office will have a busy next few weeks.

Early voting for the December 4th run-off and House District 28 Primary re-do begins next Tuesday, November 13.

On Wednesday, Stephens County Registrar Bill Cochran said he has not yet heard from the State about whether to prepare for any run-offs.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “We haven’t heard yet from the State yet about whether there will be any run-off. But we’ve got a lot to do, either way. We have to close out this election by Friday and be set up to go next Tuesday for at least the Gasaway/Erwin race.”

Should there be any state run-offs on December 4th, it will mean two completely separate elections, according to Cochran; one for the run-offs and one for the House District 28 re-run of the May Primary.

And that, he says, could get very confusing for voters.

“It’ll be separate paper ballots, it’ll be separate voting machines,” Cochran explained. “When the voter comes in and identifies himself, we’ll have records of what took place during the May Primary and we’ll determine whether they’re eligible to vote in that. If there is a run-off statewide, there will be separate machines, processes, flows for that. So, in theory a voter could come in and vote twice in two separate elections. It’s going to be confusing. I’ll have extra people here to help. I’ve never heard of anyone in the State that has had to do this.”

Cochran said his office is still working to sort out the 38 provisional ballots and waiting for about 12 military ballots to be returned by Friday before the Stephens County vote count can be certified.

According to State law, the votes must be submitted to the Secretary of State’s office and certified by Friday.