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PAGE 12A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 12. 2020
Pickens County General Election Results
Returns for selected contested races as of November 6, 2020
PRESIDENT
23,766
registered
voters
72.27%
turnout
Donald Trump
2061
1586
1136
1499
1259
491
755
442
866
1086
1240
1654
14075
Joe Biden
583
474
231
238
241
59
101
38
151
131
337
224
2808
STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 11
Rick Jasperse
2097
1622
1138
1497
1274
501
759
430
871
1083
1244
1634
14150
Kayla Hollifield
519
427
233
233
239
57
79
48
153
125
314
241
2668
PICKENS COUNTY COMMISSION CHAIR
Kris Stancil
1876
1457
959
1242
1064
388
598
326
698
880
1063
1379
11930
David Shouse
646
529
385
464
418
156
230
142
290
305
467
473
4505
1
E-SPLOST
Yes
1767
1358
895
1145
928
342
544
286
656
731
1083
1169
10904
No
776
645
439
544
529
179
262
174
318
427
416
643
5352
Number Voting
2679
2106
1393
1766
1534
568
860
489
1041
1230
1603
1906
17175
Breakdown of County Commission Chair election results
County
Kristopher “Kris” Stancil (Rep)
Registered V Election Day Advanced Vo Absentee by
Provisional VTotal Votes
David Shouse (Ind)
Election Day Advanced Vo Absentee by Provisional V Total Votes
Total Votes
combined
Yellow Creek
3571
634
902
340
0
1876
251
217
178
0
646
2522
Sharptop
2616
503
618
336
0
1457
157
201
171
0
529
1986
Appalachian
1933
327
490
142
0
959
123
185
77
0
385
1344
Refuge
2490
438
622
182
0
1242
174
226
64
0
464
1706
Hill
2042
410
500
153
1
1064
177
165
75
1
418
1482
Hinton
825
245
113
30
0
388
95
52
9
0
156
544
Jerusalem
1145
365
173
60
0
598
154
43
33
0
230
828
Ludville
721
238
60
28
0
326
85
44
13
0
142
468
Nelson
1474
318
298
82
0
698
133
106
51
0
290
988
Talking Rock
1781
354
393
131
2
880
133
127
44
1
305
1185
Jasper
2517
375
523
164
1
1063
160
222
85
0
467
1530
Tate
2651
536
650
193
0
1379
182
220
70
1
473
1852
Total:
23766
4743
5342
1841
4
11930
1824
1808
870
3
4505
16435
Continued From 1A
Results
New conditions
stalled counts
Roberts said people who
have complained about vote
counting both locally and
around the nation aren’t tak
ing into account how many
new circumstances were at
play this year. She said the
bottom line is the paper ab
sentee ballots create a tie up.
Before this year they have
never had more than 500 ab
sentee ballots here, but the
General Election saw more
than 3,000 turned in, all of
which must be opened, veri
fied and scanned in.
Last Tuesday night, elec
tion board members showed
a handful of the paper absen
tee that were examples of the
ones bogging down the
process, including some with
a mass of tape securing them
that had to be carefully cut
open, others that came in par
tially completed, one that
came inside a get-well-soon
card envelope with the voter
information missing, and at
least two left at the Pickens
Elections Office were for
Cherokee County.
Voters asked to stick
with their choice
in ballots
But the biggest problem
were voters who both re
quested paper absentee bal
lots and then came to vote
in-person, say election offi
cials.
“It was frustrating,”
Roberts said. “People would
request the absentee ballot
by mail and then come in
during early voting and say
they didn’t trust it and would
n’t use it. So we had to get
them to fill out an affidavit. If
several people came doing
this in a row, it made it look
like our machines weren’t
being used and then people
would complain that we
weren’t using the machines.
It slowed everything down
and [led to quite a few nega
tive comments].”
Turnout higher here
four years ago
Roberts said that the paper
absentee slowed things down
this election and not the
turnout, which was actually
higher by percentage of reg
istered voters four years ago.
In 2020, Pickens saw
72.27 percent of the voters
cast a ballot in some form.
That was a total of 17,175
cards cast from the possible
23,766 registered voters here.
In 2016, Pickens had a 82
percent turnout in the Gen
eral Election, according to
the Secretary of State website
at that time, with 14,172 vot
ers casting ballots out of
17,319 registered voters.
Note that despite the per
centage of the number of reg
istered voters being higher in
2016, there were more people
who voted in the 2020 Gen
eral Election (17,175 in 2020
versus 14,172 in 2016). Pick
ens’ population has not
changed significantly since
2016. The U.S. Census Bu
reau shows Pickens’ 2019
population estimate at 32,
591.
Phones ringing for
Senate runoff
The elections office re
ports that calls are already
coming regularly about the
runoff races between Repub
lican Sen. David Perdue and
Democratic nominee Jon Os-
soff, and between Republican
Sen. Kelly Loeffler and De
mocrat Rev. Raphael
Wamock ahead of a Jan. 5
runoff election.
“It’s all we’ve had all
day,” said Cathy Connell in
the elections office Monday.
She said they are prima
rily interested in absentee
ballots.
Election officials say the
best thing that people can do
is “pick a road” whether in
person or by absentee mail-in
and stick with it. You can
check your status and request
the absentee ballot at the Sec
retary of State website.
Google Georgia Secretary of
State.
Don V forget Dec. 1
PSC runoff
Voters are reminded that
there is a runoff in the Public
Service races on December 1.
Roberts explained that it
would make sense for the
two races to be on the same
ballot, but the PSC is a state
race and the U.S. Senate seats
are federal and are on differ
ent timelines. “I don’t think
we’ll see many people com
ing out for PSC,” she said.
See ballot information and
voting details in a later issue.
Commission chair-
elect puts face-to-face
meeting at top of first
day agenda
Commission chair-elect
Kris Stancil said that winning
both the GOP primary this
spring against incumbent
Rob Jones and the General
Election against Independent
David Shouse was over
whelming with so many peo
ple helping make it happen -
and humbling. “I know that
word humbling is overused,
but it’s really how I feel,” he
said.
Stancil attributed his vic
tory to striking a good middle
path in both the primary and
General Election, as he be
lieves voters were attracted to
his platform of “general im
provement, not drastic
change.”
“People were looking for
a change, but were cautious,”
he said. “I think I was able to
be between Rob [Jones] in
the primary and David
[Shouse] in the General Elec
tion.”
Now the pressure is on
Stancil to take all the ideas
and concerns expressed over
the past two years of his cam
paign and put them into ac
tion. “I want to implement as
much as we can, to show that
we didn’t just hear, but are
putting what we heard into
action.”
Stancil said on day one his
priority will be to meet at
length with all department
heads. “Before committing to
A, B, or C we need to meet
again face-to-face and be
sure we are all on the same
page,” he said.
Stancil said for him to re
place outgoing commission
chair Rob Jones, who served
16 years as the head of Pick
ens government, will take a
little time for everyone to ad
just. “Coming in after 16
years of doing things one
way and then to shift the cul
ture is going to take a little
time. I am sure we will have
different leadership styles.”
Stancil said he has had
some very good meetings
with Jones and is confident
they can work together on a
stable transition.
Stancil hopes to move
quickly to implement some
of the simpler, procedural
things that people want and
that came to attention during
the campaign.
For the bigger priorities,
Stancil identified recreation
(expanding and improving
the facilities at Roper Park);
animal shelter and road
paving (making sure that we
are carrying out what is al
ready planned. Stancil said
he wouldn’t change the exist
ing paving plans, but will
start by looking over where
the projects stand with budg
ets and bids and timelines.)
Shouse skeptical on
vote totals but says it’s
back to business for
him
Independent candidate
David Shouse said he is
proud of what he accom
plished as an outsider in the
race, exposing problems and
issues within the county, but
now it’s back to work as a de
veloper.
“I am happy to be back to
doing my things,” he said.
“Doing deals, and develop
ing. I do wish [Kris Stancil]
well.”
Shouse, who acted as a
public watchdog for govern
ment over the past two years,
says he doesn’t have time to
Budget
over in 2018; and $42,000
over in 2017.
His office’s overtime is
also constantly over budget -
by $184,000 in 2019;
$183,000 in 2018; and
$149,000 in 2017. Craig said
their officers are required to
have a certain number of
training hours that cannot be
performed while on duty,
which would create a mini
mum of $116,000 in over
time a year, “but we were
only budgeted $77,000 for
overtime,” he said. “We’ve
tried to get that number up
but it gets cut back.”
In 2019 their employees
had 14,003 training hours,
down significantly to 5,000
year-to-date in 2020 due to
COVID restrictions. Still, the
office has already exceeded
the $77,000 in overtime bud
geted for 2020.
The sheriff noted that
some events - such as work
during and after storms,
missing children operations,
and search and rescue - are
not optional and require a
significant amount of man
power and overtime. He also
said that his employees’
salaries have between 1.5-2
percent of overtime budgeted
devote to that on a daily basis
any longer, but offered to be
available should Mr. Stancil
want his advice on business
or development issues.
He said Pickens is facing
a tough time ahead with
growth and development.
“Kris is under tremendous
pressure now. I was ready to
also take that burden. But to
be able to run this county
without raising taxes -1 don’t
think that will happen.”
However, Shouse, who
ran a campaign based on
President Donald Trump, did
fire a parting shot, saying he
was skeptical and suspicious
of the ballot numbers where
he was decimated 11,930 to
4,505.
“Ever since the election,
the amount of support, of
people coming by the office
saying we did vote for you or
our whole family voted for
you, makes those numbers
kind of hard to believe,” he
said. He also pointed to sev
eral people who posted on
Facebook that they didn’t see
his name on the ballot.
while other county offices
have employees’ overtime
budgeted at between 3 and 14
percent of their salaries.
Ultimately, “With the rev
enue projections for FY
2021, for the sheriff’s budg
ets we can fund all currently
filled positions, budget a five
percent pay increase for filled
positions, and increase oper
ational budgets as presented
in the original request,” Har
vey said of the outcome of
negotiations.
The sheriff requested an
Intergovernmental Agree
ment (IGA) with commis
sioners that would “put in
writing” their agreement to
fund the unfunded positions
with a budget amendment if
they are needed as the year
progresses. In an interview
the day after the meeting
Craig said he spoke with the
Shouse said he would not
challenge it further, but
“something is just not right.”
Jasperse wins
re-election with widest
margin o f victory in
state house
Rick Jasperse said the
governor had congratulated
him on winning re-election to
his District 11 House seat
with the widest margin of
victory of any member of the
state house with a contested
race. Republican Jasperse
won with 14,150 (84 percent)
of the cards cast against De
mocrat Kayla Hollifield.
“I am very honored that
people have confidence in
me to do this job and to see
such a high turnout,”
Jasperse said.
Jasperse was pleased that
the landslide shows people
value his hard work.
“I consider this a full-time
job,” he said. “I work very
hard on constituent services.”
county attorney regarding the
IGA, which would legally
ensure they could fill those
unfunded positions without
going over budget.
Craig asked the CFO if
there is no money to fund
those unfilled positions now,
where the funding would
come from if he requested it
in the future. Harvey said the
county would have to use
some of the fund balance, but
told commissioners it would
be unwise to continue to dig
into the fund balance for
budget amendment needs in
the future.
Revised numbers were not
available immediately after
budget meetings wrapped up,
but Harvey said she would
have them ready for the No
vember 19 meeting.
Counseling
Individual, Couples and Family Therapy
with Adults, Teens and Children
Robin W. Dunn M.S.
Licensed Professional Counselor
Over 30 years experience helping people live better
770-548-1966 • 505 Cove Rd. • Suite 3 • Jasper
www.robinwdunnlpc.com
Continued From 1A