Stephens County voters mirror the state of Georgia in the Presidential Preference Primary

Tuesday, March 12, voters in Stephens County chose former President Donald Trump as the Republican nominee and incumbent President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee in Georgia’s Presidential Preference Primary.

Voter turnout in Stephens County outranked the majority of Georgia counties, as well as the state as a whole. Out of the county’s 20,172 registered voters (as of March 1), a total of 3,278 voters cast ballots in the Presidential Preference Primary, or 16.25% of registered voters. Statewide, voter turnout was roughly 12%. 

In Stephens County, of the 3,278 votes cast, 2,984, or 91.03%, were Republican ballots, with 294 votes, or 8.97% of total votes, being cast on a Democrat ballot.

On the Republican side in Stephens County, Trump received 2,456 votes, or 82.31% of the Republican vote and 74.92% of the total ballots cast. 

Finishing second in Stephens County among Republicans was Nikki Haley with 460 votes; former candidate Ron DeSantis brought in a distant third with 37 votes.

Other candidates on the Republican ballot were Chris Christie and Tim Scott with 6 votes each, Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Stuckenberg with 4 votes each, Ryan Binkley, with 3 votes, Doug Burgum and Asa Hutchinson with 1 vote each, and Perry Johnson with no votes.

On the Democratic side in Stephens County, President Joe Biden received 260 votes, or 88.44% of the Democrat votes, and 7.93% of all votes.

Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson each received 14 votes in Stephens County.

There were no unresolved provisional ballots in Stephens County. 

Following the tabulation of the votes after polls closed Tuesday, Board of Registrars and Elections Chair Sean Black told WNEG News that voting at the Courthouse had been a smooth process for local voters.

He added that one glitch with state software was encountered with a scanner, but state officials walked local officials through a solution to the technical difficulty. 

All results are unofficial until they are certified by election officials.

Statewide, as of 11 p.m. Trump led the GOP primary with 84.5% of votes, or 496,539, giving him 52 of the state’s 59 delegates. As expected, Biden dominated throughout the state with 95.2% of the 274,923 Democratic votes.

Journalist Stanley Dunlap with Georgia Recorder reported last night that Georgia voters on Tuesday helped cement Donald Trump and Joe Biden as the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees for the 2024 election. The Presidential Preference Primary wrapped up last night with the incumbent president securing enough delegates in Georgia and a few other states hosting primaries, to clinch the Democratic Party’s nomination at the national convention.

November will be a rematch between incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican President Trump, who also easily won Georgia on Tuesday and, later in the evening, surpassed the GOP delegate threshold to win the nomination after western state primaries closed voting.

Georgia will remain in the spotlight in November when state election officials predict 6 million voters are expected to go to the polls to vote for candidates for President, the state Legislature, Congress and various down-ballot contests.

One hour after the polls closed yesterday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said about 12% of Georgia voters cast ballots in the Presidential Primary. 

Raffensperger estimated about one-third of Georgia’s 7 million active voters will participate in the May 21 general election primary and that number will greatly increase once November’s high stakes general election comes around.

The question now turns to whether Biden can repeat his upset victory over Trump, who in 2020 became the rare Republican presidential candidate to lose in Georgia since 1992. In the 2020 election, the Democratic Party elected Biden to the White House, and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the U.S. Senate.

According to the Georgia Recorder report, election process concerns remain prominent statewide heading into the general election primaries in May and Election Day on Nov. 5.

Paulding County Election Supervisor Deidre Holden said her office has been waiting since Feb. 13 to receive new precinct cards notifying voters of changes in redistricting. Holden says the United States Postal Service has been slow to deliver those cards and mail absentee ballots to voters who requested them.

Her office has issued public notices about the changes to voters’ districts and she is encouraging voters to apply early for absentee ballots and to drop their ballots off at the election office or at a polling place instead of mailing them.

“Their lack of concern in delivering mail will be detrimental to our absentee voters in May and November, when their votes can affect the outcome of a close election,” Holden said. “It should not take 2-3 weeks for an absentee application to reach a local voter. This delays the issuing of the absentee ballot and the voter receiving their ballot in enough time to vote it and return it.”

Georgia election officials are bracing for new voting rules that could be in place in time for November. Bills passed by one legislative chamber in the current session would add watermark security requirements to paper ballots, require the secretary of state develop an online system for the public to inspect ballots after elections and also require that text portions of ballots be used to tabulate votes instead of QR codes.