Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger visited Athens on Tuesday. He was in town to participate in a roundtable with the Athens area Chamber of Commerce focused on small business. Raffensperger also discussed the primary election for the Public Service Commission, which can impact how much Georgians pay for their utilities.
“I wanted to make sure I dropped by the Elections Office and gave them a shout out and let then know that right now, there’s 2.4 percent turnout here in Clarke County,” according to Raffensperger. “The state average is 2.0 percent, so you look at the positive, you’re 20 percent ahead of the rest of the state on that.”
He said there are several reasons for the low turnout.
“It’s off cycle, it’s the middle of the summer, and it’s a primary. My first elected office I ran for was city council, we had about five percent turnout. You realize it’s just one of those things that happens.
He compared this race to two recent elections.
“We have 67 percent, two-thirds of the voters showed up for the presidential. You then had about one million less showed up for the gubernatorials. The more localized the race gets, the turnout just drops off, but obviously, some of these PSC district races, there’s three people in some of these races, there could very well be a runoff in a month.”
In addition to a visit to Board of Elections, Secretary Raffensperger also made a stop at the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office to thank them for keeping polling locations safe and welcoming. This is the first time Georgians have been able to vote in a PSC race in three years.
