By Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, Toccoa
Stephens County follows the state in Election results from Tuesday night.
Looking at Tuesday’s election results, Stephens County voters selected the same candidates as the state and region did in major races, though by different margins.
In the race for U.S. Senate in Stephens County, 3,914 people voted for Republican David Perdue, compared to 1,139 for Democrat Michelle Nunn and 139 for Libertarian Amanda Swafford. That is a margin of 3 to 1 in Stephens County in favor of Perdue.
Statewide, Perdue won with 53 percent of the vote to Nunn’s 45 percent.
Stephens County also voted for incumbent Republican governor Nathan Deal by a 3 to 1 margin. Deal received 3,831 votes in Stephens County, compared to 1,150 for Democrat Jason Carter and 153 for Libertarian Andrew Hunt.
Deal won statewide with 53 percent of the vote to Carter’s 45 percent.
Moving to the 9th District U.S. House race in northeast Georgia, incumbent Republican Doug Collins got 4,110 vote to Democratic challenger David Vogel’s 1,055 votes.
Collins won re-election in the District with 80 percent of the overall vote to Vogel’s 20 percent.
In the race for Georgia Agriculture Commissioner, Stephens County’s Chris Irvin lost his challenge to Republican incumbent Gary Black statewide, with Black receiving 58 percent of the vote to Irvin’s 41 percent.
Irvin received 1,460 votes in Stephens County to Black’s 3,701 votes.
In other statewide races on the ballot, Stephens County voters chose the Republican candidate by anywhere from a 3 to 1 to 4 to 1 margin.
All of those Republican candidates for state office won statewide.
Stephens County also voted “yes” on both constitutional amendment questions and on the statewide referendum question.
All three of those also passed statewide.
Meantime, busy is the word to describe Tuesday at the polls in Stephens County.
The total turnout was nearly 41 percent in the county for Tuesday’s election.
A line existed at the senior center at 7 p.m. When the polls closed and the last person reported voted sometime around 7:30 p.m.
Stephens County Registrar Theresa Kelley says that means a couple of thousand people turned out to vote Tuesday at the Senior Center.
There were reports of some confusion about where to vote on Election Day.
This is about the fifth election where Election Day voting itself in Stephens County has taken place at the Senior Center on Rose Lane.
Stephens County moved to a single voting precinct last year as a cost-saving measure.
According to Kelley, having just one voting location on Election Day saves about $5,000 an election.
Kelley says she will make sure there are more machines for the next planned countywide election in 2016.
Kelley says she does appreciate all of the work that the poll workers put in on Election Day, starting before 7 a.m. And ending after 7 p.m.
Kelley says that other than lines, there were no major problems at the polls in Stephens County on Tuesday.
