District 125 voters to choose representative in runoff
UPDATE: As of 6 p.m., Columbia County officials have asked for a hand count of the ballots of that District 125 runoff election before they’re certified. They say that is due to an error in uploading the ballot this morning.
EVANS, Ga (WJBF) – Tuesday, voters will cast their ballots in the House District 125 run off that covers parts of McDuffie and Columbia Counties. None of the 5 candidates for Barry Flemming’s old seat received 50 percent plus one vote in February’s election.
Just 300 votes separated the top two candidates for the District 125 seat. Today Republicans CJ Pearson and Gary Richardson go head to head in a quest for that seat, but whoever wins won’t hold it for long.
Qualifying for the ’25 term was last week. CJ Pearson, Gary Richardson and Democrat Kay Turner, all qualified. That means, in May, Pearson and Richardson will rematch for the Republican Primary.
The winner takes on Kay Turner in November’s general election.
It’s important for voters in District 125 to remember that they have to vote twice today because of the presidential primary, which is very unusual.
“There’ll be two sets of voting equipment and two sets of poll workers– one for the PPP and one for the 125 race in those 15 precincts. So voters need to be aware that they will actually have to vote twice, if they if they choose to,” said Nancy Gay with the Columbia county Board of Elections.
Gay said that so far, the separate voting has gone well.
“We ended up voting just about 1500 people total in that election so far with absentee and in advance in person. We had six days of voting for the advanced part and we voted more people in the advanced section than we did in the three weeks for advanced voting for the first election for that race.”
There have been several polling location changes in Columbia County Gay said people should be aware of.
“So when they go vote, like over at Westside Baptist Church, we consolidated that one in with Abilene Baptist Church out of Greenbriar. We moved those voters over to Grace Baptist. We actually got out of three schools last year,” explained Gay. “So the voters that were assigned to Greenbrier High School now go to Grace Baptist. Voters at Lakeside Middle School and Blue Ridge Elementary, they’re combined and now go to the Board of Education Support Complex on River Watch. Marvin Methodist– we moved out of that location down to Westminster Presbyterian. All the voters that were moved and changed did receive letters at the first of the year.”
To find out where you polling location is, just go to https://mvp.sos.ga.gov.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Photojournalist: Dania Alawir.
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