Runoff elections Tuesday

UNDATED - Four weeks after the General Election, Georgia voters head back to the polls Tuesday to settle three statewide runoffs. In addition, Lumpkin County voters will be choosing between the top vote-getters in a school board race.

Thousands, of course, have already voted. Early Voting began Nov. 17, Advance Voting began last Monday (but ended two days earlier than normal because of the Thanksgiving holidays) and Absentee Voting has been going on.

Lumpkin is the only Gainesville area county with a local race on the ballot - a runoff for the District One seat on the County Board of Education. The candidates are incumbent Susan Sockwell, who led the four-person race on Nov. 4 with 37 percent of the vote, and incumbent Stroud Stacy, who garnered 32 percent.

In each of the other area counties, the only races that will be on the other ballots are the three statewide contests: the hotly-contested race for the U.S. Senate between incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic challenger, Jim Martin; the race for a spot on the state Public Service Commission between Republican Lauren W. McDonald Jr. and Democrat Jim Powell (incumbent Elizabeth Speir did not seek re-election); and the non-partisan race between Sara Doyle and Mike Sheffield for the seat on the state Court of Appeals now held by John Ruffin, who did not seek another term this year.

Regular polling places will be used on Tuesday, though the number of poll workers and machines at each site will be fewer than were used for the Nov. 4 elections, when voter turnout statewide and in many counties topped 70 percent. Once again, an approved picture ID will be required.