Voters Trickle In for Runoff Election in Gwinnett County

Voters are not flooding the polls in Gwinnett County for the runoff election happening today, Aug. 21.

In fact, just 12,000 people had cast ballots as of 4:45 p.m., according to officials at the Gwinnett County elections office. That's roughly 3 percent of the active, registered voter total of 393,000, according to data from the elections office.

At 1:30 p.m., that number sat at 6,300, or 1.6 percent of the total.

Candidates hearing about the turnout sent last-minute emails to their supporters, urging them to head to the polls.

"Voter turnout is low, low, low," said one judicial candidate in an email to supporters. "Poll workers have not been seeing many voters at all, but voter turnout is expected to increase this afternoon."

It did increase; it doubled.

Although Patch does not have final figures for comparison, in the last primary election runoff that was held in a presidential election year there were 33,871 people, or 9.8 percent of registered voters then, who cast ballots in Gwinnett County, according to data on the Georgia Secretary of State's website.

In Walton County, voters are deciding on whether to send District 2 Commissioner Chuck Bagley back for another term or whether to elect former Board of Education member Mark Banks. The coroner's race also will be decided between incumbent coroner Joseph Page or challenger Richard Jenkins.

So, if you have not made it to the polls yet, there's still some time. Polls close at 7 p.m.