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Page 2—Wednesday, June 17, 2020, The True Citizen
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ELECTION
RESULTS
Final election results
from June 9 primary
DIANA ROYAL
jdianaroyal @ gmail.com
After a tumultuous election
night, precincts across the
state of Georgia have finished
counting absentee ballots in the
primary and are reporting final
numbers for various races.
Here in Burke County, the
results matched the predictions
from last Tuesday evening,
with Alfonzo Williams hanging
on to his post as county sheriff
with nearly 85 percent of the
vote, Art Lively claiming the
County Commission District
5 seat and Lucious Abrams,
Liz Johnson, Max Burns and
Natalie Paine moving on to rep
resent their respective parties
in the general election come
November.
In the sheriff’s race, Williams
bested challengers Wayne Scott
and Xavier Wimberly by gar
nering 3,405 of the 4,009 votes
cast. Scott had 459 and Wim
berly, 145. Since all three men
ran on the Democratic ticket,
the primary determined the
final winner of the race.
Lively, a newcomer to the
political held, ousted incum
bent commissioner George De-
Loach to represent the county’s
District 5. He had 275 votes to
DeLoach’s 208, carrying 56.9
percent of the vote. Both men
appeared on the Republican
ballot with no opposition from
a Democrat.
Abrams, a Democrat and
the incumbent commissioner
for District 1, defeated his
competition, Ron Reed, 661 to
194, and will move on to face
Republican Rodney Braswell
in the general election.
Incumbent District Attorney
Paine took nearly 71 percent
of the Burke County vote over
opponent Jason Hasty, with
1,108 votes to his 467. Over
all, she garnered 23,972 votes
while Hasty picked up 7,080.
She will face Democrat Jared
Williams in November.
In the Senate District 23 race,
Bums, a Republican, defeated
Trey Allen by a vote of 1,139
to 493 here in Burke, carrying
69.7 percent of the vote. On the
district level, the numbers were
much closer, with Burns earn
ing 9,640 votes (54.4 percent)
to Allen’s 8,089 (45.6 percent).
In November, Bums will face
Democrat Ceretta Smith.
For U.S. House Rep. Dis
trict 12, Johnson, a Demo
crat, smashed challenger Dan
Steiner both locally and dis
trict-wide, earning 2,328 votes
(78.6 percent) to his 634 (21.4
percent) in Burke and 48,532
votes (83.7 percent) overall
to his 9,481 (16.3 percent).
She’ll move on to the general
election in November to chal
lenge incumbent Republican
Rick Allen.
The proposal of an additional
10 years of T-SPLOST (Trans
portation Special Local Option
Sales Tax) also passed.
Out of Burke County’s
15,980 active voters, only
5,833 showed up to exercise
their right to vote for a total
36.5 percent voter turnout.
Laverne Sello, executive
director of the Burke County
Board of Elections, explained
counting was slow, not just
locally but across the state,
as poll workers fought to deal
with new voting equipment
on an entirely new system and
an overabundance of mailed
in absentee ballots due to the
coronavims pandemic. Burke
Cash needed for Mad Anthony's Big Boom
There’s just over $ 1,600 and three weeks
to go before Mad Anthony’s Big Boom
Fireworks Extravaganza lights up the sky
in Burke County.
The event, hosted by the Downtown
Development Authority, is schedule for
July 3 at Jonathan Broxton Park. DDA
Director Don Lively said this week he’s
been overwhelmed by the support of the
community. “We have a few weeks left
and are really close to reaching our goal.
If we exceed it, I’m just going to see if we
can get an even bigger and brighter show.
Our community deserves that if we can
make it happen!”
The local fireworks show is fully funded
by donations made by businesses and in
dividuals throughout the county. So far a
total of $7,580 has been contributed.
THIS WEEK’S DONATIONS:
American Legion Post 120 $200
Tanner’s Lawn Care, LLC $250
Tommy Nix $500
Evans Martin $500
Esther Moore $50
Hazel Creek $100
Pineland $200
Fleetwood Coins $100
Salter Building Supply $100
S&S Distributing $150
Total $2,150
TOTAL TO DATE: $7,580
GOAL: $9,240
NEEDED: $1,660
WANT TO HELP?
City of Waynesboro/DDA c/o Don Lively 628 Myrick St. Waynesboro, GA 30830. For
more information call 706.554.8018 or email dlively@waynesboroga.com.
County had more than 3,100
absentee ballots in the state
primary alone, and though the
state elections office made an
emergency exemption to begin
scanning those ballots early,
Burke opted out due to the ex
tensive rules and lack of staff
to accommodate them. Sello
added that those ballots also
had to be hand-certified before
opening and scanning could
begin and that she and her staff
were still busy completing that
process at midnight on election
night.
She said she hopes the issues
faced with the new system can
be worked on prior to the elec
tion in November.
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