Six of them will be for local offices, although not every race will appear on each ballot, because of by-district voting for some offices.
The other contested races on the Hall County ballots will be statewide contests for Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, state School Superintendent, Agriculture Commissioner, and Labor Commissioner. Elections of judgeships and other non-partisan posts will not take place until the November General Election.
Several of the local races will be decided, once and for all Tuesday, barring a successful write-in campaign this fall, because there will be no General Election opposition.
Voters will also be asked to decided whether to legalize the sale of liquor-by-the-drink in unincorporated parts of the county as well as Sunday liquor-by-the-drink sales. Also on the ballot will be a proposed extension of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) for education.
# OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS UP BY 6,000+
Director of Elections Anne Phillips Lea is hoping for a turnout of at least 40 percent in the county Tuesday.
Lea has always based her estimates on just a few days of absentee voting, but now has to consider an extra six weeks of absentee voting as well as advance voting which began last Monday and ended Friday and provisional ballots. About 3,000 ballots had already been cast by the time her office closed Friday.
Hall County has 72,411 eligible voters for the primaries, compared to 66,752 in 2004. The county's growing Hispanic population accounts for 1,586 of that number, nearly double the number two years ago.
Lea said there will be only one change in polling places Tuesday. The Wilson II polling place has been moved from Pleasant Hill Baptist Church on Browns Bridge Road to Gainesville Elementary School on McEver Road.
GEORGIA VOTER 101
Voters statewide are being urged to choose their ballots carefully in Tuesday's primary elections.
Unlike many states, voters in Georgia do not register as members of a particular party and may select either a Democratic or Republican ballot in each primary.
Georgia's new Voter ID law will not be in effect for the Tuesday balloting. The state has been enjoined by the courts from using it. However, you will still be required to show some proof of identification under the law that has been in place for a number of years. There are 17 forms of ID that have been approved - some with a picture, some without. The most commonly used form of ID is a driver's license. If you do not have any form of ID, you will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot and your vote will be counted once your identification is verified.
A coalition of groups opposed to the state's electronic voting machines filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the system.
The legal challenge filed in Fulton County Superior Court claims the system is illegal and unconstitutional because it fails to give voters a verifiable record showing their ballot was recorded correctly.
However, there has been no ruling on the suit, meaning elections around the state will proceed - pending a ruling to the contrary - using the sytem in question.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/7/107455