VALDOSTA —
The primary election on Tuesday, July 31, is just a few short weeks away and candidates are putting their campaigns in high gear, just in time for early voting.
Registered voters can begin casting their ballots on Monday, July 9, at the Lowndes County Board of Elections on North Oak Street in Valdosta. From tomorrow through Friday, July 20, the elections office will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. From July 23 to the 27th, the office will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and also on Saturday, July 21, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
If you miss the extended early voting period, voters can still vote in their precincts on election day. Lowndes County Elections Supervisor Deb Cox said despite some confusion this year, there are no new precincts but two polling places have changed.
“Voters in Hahira will vote at the Historical Society Building, which was changed from Newsome Church,” Cox said, “and if you used to vote at Westminster Church, your new polling place is Trinity Church due to parking issues.”
As the primary is a partisan election and the candidates vary so widely in the county according to where you live, there are “160 ballot styles. Voters can see their ballots by visiting www.sos.ga.gov/mvp, put in their information, and see both the Republican and Democratic ballots,” Cox said.
She added voters do not have to claim a party, but they do have to choose a party ballot to vote on, either Democrat or Republican. A primary is not an election, as Cox points out, but is rather a party election to determine who will go on the actual ballot to represent their party in the November general election.
Although a few races will actually be determined by the primary, as the only ones running are on the same party ticket, the candidate still has to wait until after the general election to claim victory.
The exception is the vote for T-SPLOST, the statewide transportation special purpose local option sales tax, which will be decided by Georgians July 31. The referendum, if passed, would allow the regional transportation districts to move forward with projects, which have already been negotiated between each region’s counties, by adding a new one-cent sales tax to all purchases.
As the primary is partisan, each party has included several questions on the ballot for voters to answer.
Cox said the political parties use the primary ballots as a way to measure response from individuals in their parties on various issues to determine the direction of their party’s future platform.
For more on this story and other local news, subscribe to The Valdosta Daily Times e-Edition, or our print edition.
