A runoff election for the Clarke County Board of Education seems to be generating little interest among voters.
The race in the school board’s District 2 pits incumbent Claudia Butts against challenger Mary Bagby, but so far, voter turnout has been extremely low. Elections Director Charlotte Sosebee delivered the turnout numbers so far at a meeting of the Board of Elections on Tuesday.
"At close of yesterday [Monday], we only had nine voters take advantage of the advanced voting hours, one at the Elections Office, which was one of our employees, who was represented by school District 2 and then eight at Miriam Moore [Community Services Center]," Sosebee told Board of Elections members.
Also as of Monday afternoon, just 11 absentee ballots had been returned. Elections staff said that they issued just 59 absentee ballots in total.
Early voting is underway at two locations in Athens - the main Elections Office in downtown Athens and the Miriam Moore Community Services Center in East Athens. Early voting runs through Friday.
Election day is next Tuesday, June 18.
The May 21 election that set up this runoff also saw relatively sparse voter turnout. Just 893 of over 7,640 voters in the district turned out, about 11.5%. In that race, Butts edged out Bagby by just 20 votes, 319 votes to 299. A third candidate, Kirrena Gallagher, picked up 275 votes.
District 2 covers a large portion of East Athens, beginning on the eastern outskirts of downtown and running northeast to the county line.
