Turnout hard to predict for Tuesday’s primary election | Gwinnett Daily Post

In a year where Georgians will fill out their primary ballot before schools close for the summer, the predictions are hard to make.

This is the earliest primary election ever, after a federal judge mandated the election date, and also one of the longest ballots, with more than a half-dozen candidates in contests for U.S. Senate and Congress. If you add the Republicans and Democrats together, the state school superintendent race has eclipsed a baker’s dozen, and the governor is facing an unusual party challenge.

“It’s a real interesting dynamic,” Gwinnett Elections Superintendent Lynn Ledford said of the energetic but early contests.

Like many, Ledford no longer has a home phone at her house, so she isn’t sure if the typical barrage of robo-calls will impact voters, while ads have continued to fill the television screen and other media.

But will people realize Tuesday is the day to cast ballots? She isn’t sure.

“It’s going to be an interesting Election Day,” she said. “I really can’t say (how many will turn out), but it’ll be interesting.”

During the early voting period last week, the turnout was light, Ledford said, but it was steady.

As of the end of the day Thursday, about 5,788 ballots had been cast in Gwinnett. That is down compared to four years ago, the last mid-term, gubernatorial election year, when about 9,300 votes were cast during absentee and advanced periods. But Ledford said she isn’t sure if that is an indication that the polling will be light on Tuesday.

via Turnout hard to predict for Tuesday’s primary election | Gwinnett Daily Post.