Low Voter Turnout Expected in State Superintendent Race
There are just over 5 million registered voters in Georgia. But poll watchers only expect the most committed ones to vote in next week’s runoffs. In particular, the race for state schools superintendent is likely to have some of the lowest turnout.
Some local officials predict voter turnout will be around 10% for next Tuesday’s runoff. The Republican Senate match up may draw some out to the polls. But Emory political science professor Andra Gillespie says the state superintendent race won’t have the same effect.
“Higher profile offices tend to generate higher turnout,” she says. “It’s in part because people are aware that that office exists and it’s also just a function of the fact that those campaigns tend to generate a lot of campaign donations, which turn into greater visibility.”
Gillespie says a compelling educational issue or heavy campaigning by the four candidates could boost interest.
She says part of the problem could be that voters don’t really know what the state superintendent does. “You know what the big offices are and what they do, but you don’t think about a lot of the smaller offices,” Gillespie says. “So, when you think about state school superintendents or when you think about insurance commissioners and labor commissioners, those are typically not the offices that we tend to talk a lot about in Civics class.” Runoffs typically have much lower turnout than Primary races or General Elections. This race is expected to follow that pattern.
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