Jamieson to take Post 3 Toccoa seat; voter turnout under 12%

Michelle Jamieson will take her place on the Toccoa City Commission at the next commission meeting, as final vote tallies from the Toccoa Municipal Election provided by the Stephens County Elections Office yesterday evening showed Jamieson, with 355 votes, edging out Gary Cortellino, who received 346 votes.

Jamieson, who was on hand for the Board of Elections meeting and to watch the tabulation of the final votes, said that the delay to verify provisional votes shows that the system works, and expressed appreciation for Stephens County Election Supervisor Bruce Carlisle and voters. She added how important it is for citizens to vote. 

Cortellino, who also attended the Board of Elections meeting, also commented on the election.

Following the Stephens County Board of Elections meeting held last night, Nov. 13, final tabulations were completed for all races in the Toccoa and Martin Municipal Elections, including the nine provisional ballots that went through investigation by Stephens County Elections Supervisor and were accepted by vote of the Board of Elections at last night’s meeting. Each of the ballots had been researched by Elections Supervisor Bruce Carslile following the Nov. 7 election day, when the voters who cast the provisional ballots did not appear on in the election system roster of city residents properly registered to vote. In each of the nine cases, research showed that the voters were legal residents of the city at the time of the voter registration cut-off, and that the majority of the provisional ballots were the result of county properties annexed into the city in 2018 to 2022, but the election system records for those properties was not updated, and continued to show the properties as county residents. 

Three provisional ballots – one from the Martin election and two from the Toccoa Election, were rejected by the Board after investigation showed that the voters were not legal and verified residents of the jurisdiction, as defined by state law, at the time of the election. 

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, “Provisional ballots ensure that voters are not excluded from the voting process due to an administrative error. They provide a fail-safe mechanism for voters who arrive at the polls on Election Day and whose eligibility to vote is uncertain. Provisional ballots are required by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). When there is uncertainty about a voter’s eligibility — for example, the potential voter’s name is not on the voter rolls, a required identification document isn’t available or another issue arises — the election official is required to offer the voter a provisional ballot instead of a regular ballot.”

According to Georgia Code, the Board of Elections and Election Supervisor have a set amount of time following the election to “make a good faith effort to determine whether the person casting the provisional ballot was entitled to vote in the primary or election.”

Provisional ballots remain sealed during the process, and the actual votes are not known by election office personnel of the Board of Elections until after the determination is made on the status of the ballots. Only after the determination, by vote of the Board of Elections, that the ballot is accepted, are the ballots unsealed, tallied and added to the vote totals. 

As the Post 3 race was a special election held to fill the unexpired seat on the Toccoa City Commission left vacant by the passing of Jeanette Jamieson this past April, Michelle Jamieson will be sworn in at the next meeting of the Toccoa City Commision, scheduled for November 27. Toccoa’s commissioners serve four-year terms. Jeanette Jamieson was last elected to office in 2021, and her term will not expire until 2025, at which time, both the Post 3 seat now filled by Michelle Jamieson, and the Post 5 seat held by Evan Hellenga, will be up for election. 

Final vote tabulations in all races for the Nov. 7 Toccoa and Martin Municipal Elections, as provided by the Stephens County Elections Office, are as follows:

For the Town of Martin, Harold Alexander, who ran unopposed for the mayoral seat, received a total of 50 votes and will be sworn into office in January.

In voting for the two open seats on the Martin Town Council, 54 individuals, or 21.18 % of the 255 registered voters, cast ballots in the election, with each voter being asked to cast their ballot for two candidates. Incumbent Mark Gearhart received 35 votes, candidate Michael O’Barr received 41 votes, and candidate Keith Merrittt received 16 votes. Gearhart and O’Barr will be sworn in to the Town Council in January. 

In the remaining Toccoa elections, Incumbent Terry Carter, who ran unopposed for the Post 1 seat, received 598 votes and will be sworn in for another term in office in January.

In the Post 2 race, Billy Chism received 273 votes, and Ron Matheson received 413 votes. Matheson will be sworn into office in January. 

In the Post 4 race, incumbent Gail Fry received 471 votes, while candidate Lenwood Cannon received 222 votes. Fry will be sworn in for another term in office in January. 

Countywide, including the Martin and Toccoa Elections, a total of 6,607 voters were registered and eligible to vote, of which, 769 voters cast ballots, for an overall turnout of 11.64%. Of those 769 votes, 230, or 29.9%, voted on election day, 496, or 64.5%, voted during advance in-person voting, 34, or 4.4%, voted by mail, and 9 cast provisional ballots during early in-person voting or election day voting.