WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Voter turnout a mixed bag on election day
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SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Some polling locations were busy, and many others, were very slow going.
That was the report from polling managers throughout the Coastal Empire today, as Election Day 2009 wrapped up.
With two big special elections, the 1st District State Senate race between Buddy Carter and Billy Hair, and the State Representative race in the 159th District between Ann Purcell and Jesse Tyler, and several local municipal races, Chatham County Board of Elections supervisor Russell Bridges anticipated a low turnout, estimating about 20% of registered voters would make it out to the polls.
Some locations were well under expectations. At Savannah Christian Church, only 68 of 4,000 registered voters had voted by 1pm. They specualted a change of polling location, from the church to the youth center down the road, may have caused confusion.
"It's all been at Savannah Christian, but this year it is at the Link; so I think we are having trouble between the two," poll manager Cheryl Morrison told WTOC about the possible confusion. "We have 4,000 registered here to vote. I can't say the reason is that. Everyone who went there has come here as far as I know of."
Similar turnout issues hit The Jewish Educational Alliance. With 1,400 registered voters, only 94 had voted by 6:00 pm.
Like First Presbyterian Church on Washington Avenue, the JEA polling location serves voters from both the 1st and 2nd districts. They ended up turning just as many voters away as people who voted, because their district had no races to vote on.
"We have had to turn people away, I guess about 40 or 50 percent of people who have been here have been turned away," JEA poll manager Jim Wilson told WTOC. "If you vote in first district and live in second district, which is why we are a split precinct, you don't have a candidate in 2nd district so you don't have to vote today."
Wilson blamed a lack of communication and publicity for the races and voting locations for the mix-up and low turnout.
However, many areas with local municipal races saw a steady, and in some cases, strong turnout, from Port Wentworth and Bloomingdale to Thunderbolt and Tybee Island.
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