ATLANTA — While folks flipped burgers and forgot to reapply sunscreen on Memorial Day, Fulton County’s elections board certified the results of last week’s primary election.
A bipartisan trio of elections board members met in person Monday and unanimously sent the results of the polls to the state. The certified numbers show that 186,374 out of Fulton’s 737,975 active registered voters cast ballots in the primary, amounting to a 25% turnout. The turnout in the 2018 primary was 19%.
“We believe we had a successful election,” Nadine Williams, Fulton’s interim elections director, said Monday.
There were some minor hiccups, but it was an important success as state officials eye Fulton for a temporary takeover of its elections management. Fulton officials certified the race Monday, the same day DeKalb County continued its hand recount of a county commission race caused by a computer programming error.
As for the competitive state Republican races, Fulton residents supported Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — each earning about about 6% of their total votes from Georgia’s most populated county. U.S. Senate hopeful and UGA football legend Herschel Walker notched 5.5% of his total vote from Fulton. Georgia state Sen. Burt Jones barely made his outright primary win to become the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, with Fulton to thank for 5% of his total votes.
There will be fewer Democratic runoffs in the notable statewide races, but voters will get to pick between Bee Nguyen (recently endorsed by gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams) and Dee Dawkins-Haigler for their Secretary of State nominee.
Sen. Raphael Warnock easily beat his primary challenger, earning 96% of the Fulton vote ahead of facing Walker. Democrat Jen Jordan will face Republican Chris Carr, after each defeated primary challengers, to become Georgia’s attorney general. There will be no runoffs for county commission races.
Because the runoffs feature statewide races, Williams said the same 30 early voting locations from the primary will be used for the runoffs.
Early voting will run from June 11 to June 17, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, according to a plan approved by board members.
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