Early voting turnout in Middle Georgia attracting scant attention for now

If early voting vigor is any indication, interest is low in Middle Georgia in choosing a candidate who could become the next president.

Several election officials said turnout for early voting for the March 1 presidential preference primary has thus far been slow.

On March 1, Georgia will participate in Super Tuesday or the SEC primary, as it's been dubbed in some quarters. Voters in Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma will also go to the polls, among others.

Elections officials said they'd hope the turnout would have been higher with the important stakes in this election, as people select the Republican and Democrat nominees.

"Some voters may not understand what this election means," said Jeanetta Watson, elections supervisor for the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections. "This is who will be the frontrunner on your November ballot."

This year's presidential primary pits a crowded field of Republican candidates -- six right now -- against each other, while a smaller group of Democrats, just two, are battling it out. Early voting in Georgia began Feb. 8 and runs until Feb. 26.

At about the halfway point through the early voting period, Bibb County had 685 people cast ballots. In Houston County, about an average of 225 residents have voted daily during the first seven days of advance voting.

Those numbers pale in comparison to the 2008 presidential primary, when voters come out in droves in the two counties. Over a five-day early voting period then, nearly 5,500 voters cast ballots in Bibb, while about 4,000 did so in Houston, election officials said.

The primary election day that year drew about 22,000 voters in Houston County, said Andy Holland, an election technician for Houston County Board of Elections.

"2008 in Houston is really when early voting started to take off and you saw people really take advantage of it," said Holland, who described this year's turnout as "very low."

In the 2012 presidential primary, the number of early voters dropped by nearly 1,000 compared to 2008. That was expected since there was an incumbent president, Holland said.

Only 320 of about 14,000 registered Peach County voters had come out for the 2016 primary through Wednesday, said interim Elections Supervisor Marsha Gosier.

"I honestly don't think people are aware of the importance of this election, so we've had a low early turnout," she said Thursday.

One day that should be able to attract more voters is Saturday, when early voting takes place at the Macon-Bibb elections office from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. It provides an opportunity for people who may not be able to make it on a weekday.

While early voting numbers are down, that doesn't mean there won't be a rush of people at the polls on election day.

"You have your diehard pollgoers that aren't going to vote anywhere but the polls," Watson said.

Holland said he thinks there will be a large turnout on primary election day.

"Most people may be waiting (now) to see what the other states do, to see if anyone else will suspend their campaigns," he said.

To contact writer Stanley Dunlap, call 744-4623 or find him on Twitter@stan_telegraph.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Early voting turnout in Middle Georgia attracting scant attention for now ."