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Officials say turnout light for Tuesdays primary election
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Preliminary results for contested positions:

Note: These results are not official and have not yet been certified.

 

Commission:

District 3

Glen Willard - 407

Henry Rey, Jr. - 230

 

 

Board of Education:

Vice Chairman

Jeff Morton - 936

Carrol Ann Coleman - 584

 

District 2

Dennis Seger - 179

Wanda Lane - 69

There were still a "handful" of absentee ballots to be counted late Tuesday night for District 2, but they will not change the result.

 

District 3

Charlie Johnson - 363

Candace Piper - 233

Charles Blakewood - 89

Johnson won by enough votes to win without a runoff election.

Turnout was light for the primary election this year.

That was the consensus from Chief Registrar Warren Miller and Probate Judge Sam Davis about how Bryan County voters showed up at the ballot box – or rather, didn’t.

"It started out on the light side last week with advanced and absentee voting activity," Miller said and Davis agreed that it was a "slow election," which he attributed to a lack of countywide positions on the ballot.

"There just weren’t that many races in Bryan County," Davis said. "We had the Board of Education Vice Chairman position, which was the only contested countywide position on the ballot. The constitutional officers, if they have opposition, that’s when you see more people voting. When it’s not a countywide race, there’s always less of a turnout."

Davis said the election went smoothly and at 9 p.m., they were in the midst of the "normal but chaotic, end of the night, trying to get all the votes tallied up" part of the Election Day.

Among the races that were held Tuesday (see box for preliminary results as of 10 p.m. Tuesday):

County Commission District 3 incumbent Glen Willard faced Henry Rey, Jr. District 1 incumbent Ed Bacon (R) and challenger Joe Kendrick (D) will face each other in November’s general election. Chairman Jimmy Burnsed ran unopposed and will serve another term.

On the Bryan County Board of Education, Jeff Morton and Carrol Ann Coleman squared off for the vice chairman position while Dennis Seger faced Wanda Lane in District 2. Charlie Johnson and Candace Piper were both vying for the District 3 seat, after Charles Blakewood dropped out of the race Friday.

The county’s constitutional officers all ran unopposed for their respective positions, which included Sheriff Clyde Smith, Probate Court Judge Sam Davis, Clerk of Superior Court Rebecca Crowe, Tax Commissioner Debbie Newman and Coroner Bill Cox. Davis said State Court Solicitor Ray Smith also qualified for another term prosecuting traffic court cases.

Representatives Jack Kingston, Bill Gillespie, Eric Johnson, Bob Lane and Ron Stephens were also running unopposed in their primaries. Saxby Chambliss was running as the unopposed Republican for the U.S. Senate while Dale Cardwell, Vernon Jones, Rand Knight, Josh Lanier and Jim Martin were all running on the Democratic side. In Public Service Commission positions, H. Doug Everett faced Rick Collum; Pam Davidson faced Lauren McDonald; and Jim Powell faced Bob Indech.

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