Walthourville will elect its mayor on Tuesday in a runoff, where voters will finally have a chance to cast their votes in the city itself. Early voting opportunities were two: 7 and 13.7 miles from the city limits. The distance and reasons for the remote access can be traced back to voting changes enshrined in the state’s 2021 SB202 voting law.
Registered voters in Walthourville, a town of just over 3.8 square miles and 3,800 people, can choose their mayor on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at Victory Baptist Church in the city between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Early voters have had to travel miles by car or bus to two other cities to cast their ballots.
That travel time is one of the effects of a slew of election changes passed by the Georgia Assembly in the wake of the 2020 election, according to Elections Supervisor Ronda Walthour.
Because the early voting sites are part of the countywide election plan, any changes would have to go through state elections officials at the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. Such changes, like adding an early voting location within Walthourville city limits, would cost the city money it doesn’t have. The Liberty County Elections Office manages Walthourville’s municipal election, including Tuesday’s mayoral runoff between incumbent Larry Baker and Mayor Pro Tem Sarah B. Hayes.
At the end of early voting, only 160 of the city’s 2,656 registered voters had cast early ballots in person. Another 12 had cast mail-in ballots. That’s a turnout (thus far) of 6.47%.
Few decide for the many
Extremely low voter turnout is typical in local races, and even fewer people usually cast ballots in local runoff elections. That means a fraction of a fraction of the city’s citizens even take part in choosing the leaders whose decisions will impact them closest to home. And in extremely low-turnout races, one or two or a handful of votes hold even greater power than usual.
For Walthourville, the stakes are high. In the primary, voters chose three new members on the five-member council. Citizens who have attended recent budget and tax rate hearings have been vocal in their discontent and say they want the city to explain why its surplus turned into a deficit. Last December, the council failed to pass a balanced budget for 2023 as required by state law. The city’s accountant pegged the current deficit at more than half-a-million dollars, which he said could reach $1.1 million in a few months. That meeting degenerated into citizens shouting about being left off the public comment agenda and the city attorney’s talk time during meetings. At its Nov. 14 regular meeting, the council approved a millage rate for property taxes and a fire fee but did not state what those would cost citizens.
The city faces serious financial issues after the COVID-19 pandemic, a multimillion-dollar water system upgrade, and price increases due to inflation. The city has been paying some of its bills using its lucrative Water Fund and may need to borrow money until it figures out some new income streams. The city is also pushing the county to pay more for the professional fire services it provides unincorporated areas. If it doesn’t pass a state-required balanced budget and maintain minimum services, it could lose the city charter earned in 1974. In October, the council sidestepped public hearings on the budget and millage rate issues until after the primary election.
Voter participation key to issues
With so much on the line, voter participation takes on more importance than usual. But getting voters to the polls is also tougher than usual in this race, partly due to the logistical challenges in early voting.
Hayes told The Current that the city has not had early voting sites within the city limits since at least 2012. However, she pointed out that Election Day has taken place inside Walthourville at different locations — the police station one year, a church on Airport Road another year. However, the city’s financial issues precluded Saturday voting this year, she said, because the city would have had to pay overtime to the county election workers.
Baker did not return The Current’s online and phone messages with requests for comment either Thursday or Friday.
The city’s mayoral runoff comes as the Georgia General Assembly holds a special session to redraw district maps as ordered by a federal judge in Atlanta. Every 10 years, after the U.S. Census, Georgia legislators redraw district maps of which areas are represented by members of the Georgia state House, state Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives. (The U.S. Senate is not included because every state gets two senators.) Engaged citizens, voting rights activists, and politicians are watching the special session closely because new maps could give Black and Democratic areas greater representation in the overwhelmingly white Republican Gold Dome.
Both county-run early voting sites were open during business hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For Walthourville voters who work during that time, that effectively forced them to take time off work or — if they work nearby and can drive to the polling place — to squeeze in their votes during lunch break.
For people who don’t work a 9-to-5 job, the schedule might not be a problem, but actually getting to the polls may be. Walking to the nearest polling place in Hinesville, which is 6.6 miles from Victory Baptist, is impractical or impossible for many voters, particularly those who are older or disabled. For those without a car or anyone to give them a ride, the bar to cast that ballot is higher.
The alternative for early in-person voters is to travel even farther to the Liberty County Community Complex in Midway — 13.7 miles away. While that location may be far from Walthourville, it does shave significant travel time for commuters who work in Savannah, Pooler, and Midway if they leave work early. As of midday Thursday, Nov. 30, according to one poll worker, only three voters had cast ballots all week at that location. A handful of county election officials and a Liberty County Sheriff’s deputy were on duty in the empty polling place.
On Wednesday, the Liberty County Board of Registration and Elections posted a map to Facebook, advising Walthourville early voters that some parking near the county elections office would be limited due to street closures for Hinesville’s Christmas festival.
Hinesville City Manager Kenneth Howard was not available Thursday afternoon. His executive assistant, Christy DeLoach, told The Current the city had put a notice on Facebook through the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday and pointed out that the street that passes in front of the entrance to the building remained open.
“South Main has plenty of parking,” DeLoach said. “The city worked really hard to shift everything towards Martin Luther King {Jr. Drive]….the [kiddie] trains used to go through the North Commerce loop. We moved them back by the fire department so they would not impact the back end of the courthouse. We do all we can do to be good neighbors.”
DeLoach said only seven parking spaces had been affected and that there was “plenty of parking” within walking distance of the courthouse.
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