Election Day has come and gone, but Oglethorpe County’s work is not done.
The Senate race between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker wasn’t decided because neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote.
That forced a runoff between Warnock and Walker, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 6.
Warnock received 49.4% of the statewide vote, while Walker received 48.5%, with only a little more than 35,000 votes separating them.
In Oglethorpe County, Walker earned a stronger majority of the vote at 68.3%, while Warnock garnered less than one-third of the county at 29.4%. Only 152 people in the county voted for Libertarian Chase Oliver, who isn’t on the ballot for the runoff.
This trend of large Republican majorities in Oglethorpe County held true in every race.
Marilyn Huff-Waller, Oglethorpe County election supervisor, said although Election Day went smoothly, the turnout was underwhelming.
“No issues per say, but there was a lower turnout than expected,” she said.
Oglethorpe County had 64.3% of registered voters cast a ballot this cycle, outpacing the Georgia average of 56.9%.
Turnout on Election Day in Oglethorpe County had been strong in the past, but this cycle, the majority of ballots were a part of early voting. In fact, 58.2% of voters did so early, and only 34.9% of votes were cast on Election Day.
Oglethorpe has been a firmly Republican county, and this cycle, that held true.
Gov. Brian Kemp received an overwhelming majority, 73.4% of the vote in the county on his way to defeating Stacey Abrams and being reelected to a second term.
Brad Raffensperger received 70.5% of Oglethorpe County’s votes and was reelected as Secretary of State over Bee Nguyen.
Republicans won down the ballot for county voters as well, including Rep. Trey Rhodes (R-Greensboro) being reelected to the State House for District 124 over Winterville’s Kat Howkins, the sole Democrat running for a position in the county. Rhodes received 72.2% of the vote in the county.