Turnout didn’t climb out of the low hundreds at multiple Gwinnett County voting precincts Tuesday afternoon.
The flow of people at Rhodes Jordan Park in Lawrenceville was slow, according to poll manager Lucinda Mills. The count was at 110 when Mills updated a poster at 2 p.m. Mills, who has worked at the precinct for five years, was surprised because the polling place was given more voting machines this year: nine, up from seven the previous election.
“Maybe people are waiting for the afternoon,” Mills said.
READ | Get the latest news on Georgia primaries
READ | Georgia 2018: Where the governor candidates stand on the issues
READ | Inside Gwinnett's quest to find 350 Spanish-speaking poll workers
About a mile away at First United Methodist Church, 136 people had cast ballots as of 2:30 p.m., according to poll manager Bob Ondish. The pace was steady and on pace for a primary, Ondish said.
Turnout was slightly higher at Centerville Elementary School in Snellville. By 3 p.m., as students were streaming out of classrooms to their buses, the voter count in the gym was around 200, according to poll manager Terry Jurjevich. He expected about 300 for the whole day, which would be a turnout rate of around 10 percent. Jurjevich attributed high rates of early voting to small in-person turnout, though he did not think the numbers at Centerville were much different than past primary elections.
Poll managers also found it hard to gauge how many voters utilized Gwinnett County’s Spanish-language ballots. Spanish ballots and Spanish-speaking poll workers are available across Gwinnett County because the county’s population is more than 20 percent Hispanic. Poll workers in multiple cities had not seen a voter ask for Spanish-language assistance, but it is impossible for them to know how many Spanish ballots were filled out.
“If they know it is there, they can go to the machine and select the Spanish ballot without asking for assistance,” Jurjevich said.
Polls close at 7 p.m.
Like Gwinnett County News on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Stay up to the minute with breaking news on Channel 2 Action News This Morning
About the Author
