Georgia Primary Election Results: Election Night Updates

Part 2 of the election special with WABE’s Denis O’Hayer, political analyst & Clark Atlanta University professor William Boone and former Georgia State Senator Chuck Clay.

Hear reports from reporters; Jim Burress, Lisa George, Michell Eloy, Jonathan Shapiro, Michelle Wirth and Elly Yu.

Part 2 of the election special.

Update 11:45 p.m.

This will be our last vote total update for the evening.  Here are the results of the top races with 75% of the total vote counted.

Below is a map showing which counties have reported in full (green) and which counties have only reported partial vote counts.  As you can see, it’s primarily the counties in the Atlanta metro area as well as Muscogee (Columbus), Richmond (Augusta), Chatham (Savannah) and an assortment of other counties.

Update 11:00 p.m.

We have some results on the competitive races in the Fulton County Commission.  The battle in the 7th District between commission chairman John Eaves and Robb Pitts continues.

Also, we have noticed that the returns from DeKalb County have been very slow to arrive this evening.  We hope to report on the race for DeKalb sheriff and the races for school board when more substantive results are available.  As of about 10:45 p.m., it appeared that the county had counted fewer than 10,000 ballots total.

With 54% of the vote in, here are the latest returns for the top races.

Update 10:40 p.m.

One Georgia Senate race we’re watching is the 9th District in Gwinnett County. State Sen. Don Balfour had been involved with some ethics questions. He was cleared of all charges, but his troubles attracted primary competitors.  And as a result, Balfour is now in last place in his primary, with about 46% of the vote counted.

Update 10:20 p.m.

Update 9:55 p.m.

The race between Fulton County Commissioner John Eaves and Robb Pitts in Commission District 7, with roughly 20% reporting, is very close.  Eaves is leading with 5,671 votes, while Pitts is right behind with 5,471 votes.  In percentage terms, Eaves has 50.9% and Pitts has 49.1%.  Stay tuned.

Update 9:50 p.m.

We have some new numbers.  This time about 26% of the returns have been counted.  Here are the major races we’re following:

Update 9:30 p.m.

More results, again with roughly 12% of the votes counted.

Update 9:15 p.m.

Here are some results, with roughly 12% of the votes counted.

Update 8:55 p.m.

We’re about to go on the air with our primary election special report. Listen in at 90.1 FM or stream the audio from our site starting at 9:00 p.m.

Update 8:35 p.m.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s web site is now posting results as the counties report.  The numbers are constantly changing, so if you want the very newest results, go to the Georgia Election Results site. 

We will focus on reporting the major statewide races and on results for local races such as the Fulton County Commission races, the DeKalb County school board races, and selected Georgia House and Senate races.

Updated 7:55 p.m.

2014 Early Vote Bigger Than In 2010 Primary Election

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office reported Monday that 239,281 Georgians cast early ballots in this year’s primary election.  That’s almost 27,000 more early voters than the primary election in 2010. 

Of the early ballots cast for this primary, 61.8% were Republican ballots and 36.9% were Democratic ballots.  Nonpartisan ballots made up an additional 1.2% of ballots.

The last day of the three-week early voting period was Friday, May 16.

In 2010, a total of 212,487 early ballots were cast during a seven-week early voting period. So 12.6% more voters cast early ballots this year than did in 2010, even though the early voting period this year was less than half as long as in was in 2010.

The votes will be counted along with today’s votes to produce the election results.  Here are some details about the May 20 primary election early ballots from the Secretary of State’s office.

• Number of ballots cast:  239,281
• Number of ballots voted in person:  214,975
• Number of mail-in ballots returned:  24,306
• Number of mail-in ballots outstanding:  14,385
• Number of ballots cast, Republican:  147,995
• Number of ballots cast, Democratic:  88,316
• Number of ballots cast, non-partisan:  2,970

WABE will be posting updated information and results of today’s primary election throughout the evening. You can follow us here on our web site, on our Facebook page, and on Twitter at @wabenews.

And we will be broadcasting an election night special report tonight at 9:00 p.m. on 90.1 FM and streaming online here. WABE’s Denis O’Hayer will anchor our coverage with news, election results, analysis and reports from our reporters at the candidates’ election night headquarters. Special guests include Chuck Clay, former Georgia GOP party chair, and William H. Boone, Ph.D., professor of political science at Clark Atlanta University.