Few local, contested races in Gainesville area

GAINESVILLE - Only a handful of local contested races will be on the ballots in the counties in and around Gainesville Tuesday because most local races were decided during the primary elections.

White County tops all area counties with seven local contested races, including two for Superior Court judgeships. There will be six each in Banks and Hall counties - including the three-man race for a vacancy on the Gainesville City Council, and not counting the one for Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor, which is not a typical political post and has never appeared on a Hall County ballot. The only local referendum to be voted on in Hall County is a Sunday liquor-by-the-drink question in Oakwood.

There are no local contested races on the ballots in Forsyth and Dawson counties.

In White County, voters will find contested races for State Senate, two State Representative posts, the county school board and Judge of Superior Court. In one race for a judgeship, Gainesville City Attorney James "Bubba" Palmour III, who maintains a residence in the circuit which is made up of Lumpkin, Towns, Union and White counites, is running against incumbent David Barrett. In the other, Lynn Alderman and Rick Stancil are squaring off for a seat on the bench which is being vacated by the incumbent.

In Hall, in addition to the Gainesville City Council race and the Oakwood liquor question, which only residents of those two cities will vote on, voters will decide the fate of a State Senate seat, two for State Representative, one for county school board, and, new this year, aforementioned Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor. There are four candidates for that post, three of them incumbents, and voters are being asked to vote for any three of the four. In Hall and most other counties in Georgia there will be contested races for U.S. Representative on the ballots. In addition, three proposed constitutional amendments and six statewide referenda are on all Georgia ballots. A listing of them can be found by clicking on the special election link on the AccessNorthGa.com home page.

In Banks County, the six contested local races are for State Senate, State Representative, county commissioner (two contests), and county school board (two contests).

In Habersham, a State Senate race; in Lumpkin, county commissioner, county school board chairman; the same two Superior Court judgeships that will be on the White County ballot; and, a general purpose one percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendum.

In Barrow County, there are races for one State Senate seat and one State Representative post.

In Dawson County, though there are no local contested races on the ballot, voters will be asked whether they wanted to legalize the sale of packaged liquor.

In Forsyth, the other county in the area where there are no local contested, there is a $395 million school bond referendum and proposed extension of the SPLOST for education. (A similar question is on the ballot in Gwinnett County: a $426.1 (b) billion school bond referendum and SPLOST for education).

A number of counties in the area also have one or more local homestead exemption questions on their ballots.

The lack of local contested races in the General Election in Georgia is, of course, nothing new. Georgia has traditionally decided most local races in the primaries. For decades, it was because it was considered a Democratic state and there was no Republican opposition, or at least very little, in the General Election. Now, the Republicans have become a force and the dominant party (at least in and around metro Atlanta and certain other areas) and Democratic opposition in the General Election has all but vanished in a lot of counties - especially in "down the ballot" races, such as those for county commission, school board, tax commissioner, court clerk, probate judge, etc.

There are 74,279 eligible voters in Hall County. About 3,000 of them took advantage of absentee and early voting, according to Elections Director Anne Phillips Lea. (See separate story.)

Tuesday will be a holiday for some school students, including those in the Hall County School System since many schools are used as polling places. For students, teachers and others in the Gainesville School System, it will be a regular school day.

As usual, polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. - and anyone in line at 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote.