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Local incumbents defend seats while Wade jumps to lead
Stacy Jarrard, Mera Turner, E-SPLOST and the potential for run-offs won the day in a hectic Tuesday which saw a bevy of voting complications around the state of Georgia, leading the Secretary of State to release the results of Georgia’s Primary election late Tuesday night shortly after the last polls in the state closed.
While several of the races in Lumpkin County were foregone conclusions, with incumbents running unopposed, those races that had challengers offered a bit more intrigue as voters awaited the final results.
Below are how the local races turned out, based on the numbers released by the Secretary of State’s website as of just before midnight Tuesday.
LUMPKIN COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION:
District 1:
In the race for Lumpkin County Board of Education District 1 incumbent Mera Turner edged out her opponent Ryan Scott with 53 percent of the ballots, taking 4,232 votes out of the 7,974 ballots cast for the position.
District 3: Running unopposed, District 3 incumbent Jim McClure won another term with 7,159 votes.
LUMPKIN COUNTY SHERIFF:
Incumbent Stacy Jarrard defeated his challenger Jack Jones in the race for Lumpkin County sheriff in a landslide victory, winning his fourth term in office.
Jarrard garnered 89 percent of the vote (6,282) to win reelection, while Jones received 815 votes.
GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISTRICT 9:
Though there are still plenty of votes to be counted, Will Wade took the day in Lumpkin County with 1,902 votes out of the 6,828 ballots cast in the county.
Wade’s 27.86 percent of Lumpkin County’s votes edged out Doug Sherrill, who received 24.69 percent of the vote with 1,686 votes.
Steven Leibel finished with 22.01 percent, Zack Tumlin garnered 13.61 percent of the vote, Tyler Tolin finished with 6.31 percent of the vote, while Clint Smith received 5.51 percent of the votes in Lumpkin County.
As the time of this posting, the Georgia Secretary of State’s website only had 50 percent of District 9’s counties and precincts reporting.
Running unopposed on the Democratic ballot, Ravert received 1,051 votes from Lumpkin County voters and will face off with the winner of the Republican primary this coming November to see who will be District 9’s new House Representative.
E-SPLOST:
The Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST), a one penny sales tax that may be used by school systems to build new facilities, renovate existing structures, improve bus fleets, upgrade HVAC systems and pay debt from previous projects, passed with overwhelming support.
With 5,185 votes for E-SPLOST out of the 7,243 votes cast on the issue, the one penny sales tax was passed with 71.59 percent of the vote.
BRUNCH BILL:
SB 17, more commonly known as the Sunday Brunch Bill, was passed by the Georgia Senate in 2018 and by the City of Dahlonega at the end of last year allows for communities that already have Sunday sales to vote on whether or not to move roll back on-premise consumption sales hours from the current designated time of 12:30 p.m. to an earlier time of 11 a.m.
The residents of Lumpkin County voted to enact the Sunday Brunch Bill. Voters cast their ballots in favor of the bill by 60.08 percent. The bill garnered 4,470 favorable votes out of the 7,440 ballots tallied.
The Georgia Restaurant Association (GRA), who helped push the Brunch Bill over the past four years, estimates the change has the potential to bring in an additional $25,000 per year.
COUNTY COMMISSIONER:
District 1:
Running unopposed, District 1 County Commissioner incumbent David Miller won a second term with 6,102 votes.
District 2:
Also running unopposed, District 2 County Commissioner Bobby Mayfield won a second term with 6,213 votes.
US HOUSE DISTRICT 9
Though long time state representative Kevin Tanner won the tally in Lumpkin County with 50 percent of the vote (3,304) he was facing more intense competition across the district in the race for U.S. House District 9 as Matt Gurtler led with 23 percent of the vote followed by Andrew Clyde in second with 21 percent. Tanner had a 11 percent of the vote across the district at the posting of this story, with 35 percent of precincts reporting.
OTHER UNOPPOSED RACES:
The race for Clerk of Superior Court, Surveyor, Coroner and County Commission Chairperson were far less dramatic with all incumbents running unopposed. Rita Harkins remained the Clerk of Superior Court, John Gaston held on to his position as Surveyor, Jim Sheppard will see another term as Coroner and Chris Dockery kept his seat as Lumpkin County Commission Chair.
The race for tax commissioner, a seat vacated after Rachel Pruitt declined to rerun after 30 years in the tax and tag office, was won by the lone candidate for the position Mike Young.
PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEES
President Donald Trump, who was unopposed on the ballot, received 6,025 of the Lumpkin County Republican vote.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden received 810 votes from local Democratic voters, a tally which amounted to 78 percent.