Home > Election Day > Archives > 2006 > July > 18 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USPolls open for primary business
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When poll manager Dottie Cadenhead opened the doors at 7 a.m. at the voting precinct in DeKalb County’s Briarwood Recreation Center, she met three waiting voters. That’s four fewer than she is used to in presidential elections, but Cadenhead has hope for the day.
She said her two ExpressPoll touchscreen voting machines are running just fine. The new machines incorporate electronic voter verification, so poll workers do not have to manually identify voters from computer lists.
“I”m excited about the new machines,” Cadenhead added. “I think it will be so great.”
State elections officials believe no more than one in five registered Georgia voters will go to the polls today.
Because Georgia does not require specific party registration, voters today can choose to vote in either party primary.
Other than heat, weather should not be a factor today. Voters will walk in the sunshine throughout most of the state, except in extreme south Georgia, where skies will be partly cloudy with a slight chance for afternoon and evening thundershowers. Parts of the state could approach 100 degrees.
Bartow County Election Supervisor Tracy Brown said opening operations were going well in her county Tuesday, where she expects no more than 19 percent.
“It’s down a little bit because we don’t have any highly contested [local] races and no local races on the Democratic ticket,” Brown said.
The Democratic nomination for governor and the Republican race for lieutenant governor lead today’s ballots.
The Democrats, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox, crisscrossed Georgia on Monday to cap a raucous gubernatorial primary battle defined more by attack ads than a debate of the issues.
Republicans have their own high-stakes race to settle in today’s primary election. Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and state Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville) are locked in a bitter primary battle for lieutenant governor. Polls indicate the two are neck and neck, and they spent Monday drumming up grass-roots support at get-out-the-vote rallies.
Some Democrats see a silver lining in the Cox-Taylor brawl — they hope its prime time sniping will boost the party’s sagging turnout numbers when voters go to the polls today to pick Democratic and Republican nominees for national, state and local offices.
“We have a great opportunity to make historic change,” Cox told about a dozen supporters in Savannah. “We need to change the tune and tone of government.”
Taylor warned several dozen supporters at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany of sweltering Election Day temperatures.
“I hope that you will load up with your ice water,” Taylor said. “I hope that you will hit the streets for me. Urge everybody to help the Big Guy so I can do more to help the little guys of Georgia.”
Democrats hope the party faithful respond. Primary turnout numbers for Georgia over the last two decades tell a sobering story for the party, which once dominated the state and now finds its fortunes dwindling.
For more than 100 years, the Democratic primary essentially was the election — the November general election was little more than a coronation for Democratic nominees. But those nominees now must face well-funded Republicans, who often enjoy a broadening base of support.
The number of people voting in the Democratic primary in Georgia has been nearly halved since 1990, while Republican primary turnout in the same period quadrupled. More than a million Democrats voted in that party’s primary 16 years go, but by 2002, the number had dropped to 576,000. Only 118,000 people voted in the 1990 Republican primary, but the number had swelled to 527,000 by 2002.
Permalink | |
