Voter turnout for Macon’s primary has been ‘pitiful,’ elections supervisor says.

The early voter turnout in Macon-Bibb County has been low compared to the 2020 primary and nonpartisan elections, according to ballot reports, and local officials expect final vote tallies will also be surprisingly low.

Only about 4.3% of the county’s registered voters had cast their ballot as of Thursday morning – that is 4,527 out of 115,439 registered voters, according to the Georgia Secretary of State website.

County Elections Supervisor Thomas Gillon called the number “pitiful” compared to previous local races.

“We haven’t had a large turnout, which is pitiful,” Gillon told The Telegraph. “We’ve had a much larger turnout overall, whether in-person, absentee or on Election Day, than it’s looking like we’re going to get this year.”

During the 2022 local elections, about half of the total voter turnout came from advance voters, and the other half on Election Day, Gillon said.

If only about 4% of voters cast their ballots by the end of the advance voting period, Gillon expects only another 4% will vote on Election Day. If this turns out to be the case, only about 8% of the county’s total registered voters would have voted.

Charles Bullock III, political science professor at University of Georgia, said this trend is not unique to Macon.

“Participation in early voting is a pretty good indicator of whether you’re going to have a high or low turnout on Election Day,” Bullock said.

Besides a lack of civic engagement, some voters in seven out of the county’s nine districts received the wrong ballots, according to the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections and the local chapter of the NAACP, causing further issues.

Advance voting opened April 29 and closes on Friday. May 10 was the last day to request an absentee ballot. Election Day, which is Tuesday, is the last chance for voters to cast their ballots.

High-profile races in May’s primary include sheriff, mayor, and various county commissioners. The last time these races were on the ballot was in 2020 – at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mail-in absentee ballots for Macon were the most common form of votes cast in 2020, according to a county election summary report. The 2020 nonpartisan mayoral race drew 5,684 in-person absentee ballots, 17,961 mail-in absentee ballots, and 16,292 on Election Day.

“2020 is a weird year for multiple reasons,” Gillon said, “We had a lot of people voting absentee, and so forth.”

He said the pandemic held many back from voting in-person and wondered if post-pandemic effects held voters back from the polls this year.

“If you end up finding a pattern (in non-voters), please let me know,” Gillon said, chuckling.

Destiny Davis, an 18-year-old who could be voting in her first election this year, shared why she’s not doing so.

“I feel like one less vote, it wouldn’t really matter,” Davis said. “I’m not into politics and stuff like that so I don’t really know who to vote for. I’m going to just wait and see what happens.”

There are others who would be interested in voting, but can’t. Before local resident Roderick Deshon Daniels was a convicted felon, he voted in local elections. Daniels recalled he also voted for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election.

“I’m a felon, so I can’t vote,” Daniels said. “I was real young, but yeah I had to vote for the commissioner and all that before.”

He was aware the primaries were occurring because his mother is a voter, and his neighbors posted campaign signs on their lawn.