Tuesday, August 5, is Georgia’s primary runoff election. Your polling place will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
This election includes only those party primaries for offices where no candidate received at least 50% of the vote in the July 15 primary election. Since there are no Republican primary races in DeKalb County where a candidate failed to receive 50% of the vote, only the Democrats will have a runoff. Here is the sample ballot (click for link) for the Democratic runoff election.
There are certain rules governing whether you can vote in this particular election, depending upon whether you selected a Republican or Democratic ballot in the July 15 primary election, or did not vote in that election. One of our District 80 neighbors, Jeff Turnage, sent the following helpful summary to his neighborhood e-mail distribution list:
I voted absentee in July. Can I vote in the run-off in person? YES!
I did early voting in July. Can I vote in person on Tuesday? YES!
I consider myself a Republican, but did not vote in July. Can I vote next Tuesday, even though only Democrats are running? YES!!
If I, as a Republican, vote in the Democratic run-off next week, will I still be able to vote a Republican ticket in November’s General (i.e., Presidential) Election? ABSOLUTELY YES!
I voted a Republican ticket in the July Primary. Can I vote in next week’s run-off? NO … I’M SORRY, BUT YOU CANNOT.
I voted a Democratic ticket in the July Primary. Can I vote in next week’s run-off? YES … OF COURSE YOU CAN.
Now for a final bit of my own pre-election editorializing:
The race for DeKalb County CEO will be decided in this runoff election. I highly recommend Burrell Ellis (click for information on Ellis) for this very important office which controls the day-to-day administration of our county. As reported on the popular political blog Peach Pundit, the campaign tactics (click separately on “campaign” and “tactics”) of Ellis’ opponent indicate that his opponent will continue the polarization that has been an unfortunate hallmark of Vernon Jones’ reign as CEO.
