Primary Election Day, 2024
Good Morning! Happy Primary Day! Today’s newsletter starts with what you need to know about voting. Click here for news and information from The Current about casting a ballot in Coastal Georgia. We’re also highlighting marquee races we’re watching and conclude with some bits of news you may have missed. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
What you need to know
Polls in Coastal Georgia open at 7 a.m. today and close 12 hours later. If the March 12 presidential primary is anything to go by, results will start rolling in shortly after that.
In that election, The Associated Press started reporting results at 7:08 p.m., or eight minutes after polls closed. Election night tallying ended at 1:18 a.m. the following morning, with 99.8% of the total votes counted.
As of late last night, weather reports indicated clear skies and temperatures in the upper 70s up and down the coast. That’s good news for voter participation — early voting leading up to primary election day has been light.
Don’t forget: Georgia has an open primary, which means you don’t have to register for a party. Voters can walk into the polls and request any party’s ballot or simply a nonpartisan one. No matter what, nonpartisan races will be on ballots, as well.
Races in which the top vote-getter doesn’t receive more than 50% of the vote will go to a runoff on June 18.
For more information, click here to go to The Current’s voting guide, where you’ll find a bounty of useful information, including information about the candidates, election terms and definitions, and what you need to bring with you to the polls to vote.
And click on The Current’s home page this evening for Coastal Georgia voting results as quickly as we can confirm them.
Marquee races
Every Coastal Georgia election is important to the candidates who stand for public office and the citizens whose lives those offices shape. But following is a sample of the races we’re watching with special interest, as reported by The Current. For additional election coverage, click here.
“Reform, staffing issues take center stage in Chatham DA election” by Jake Shore
“The election contest, between incumbent DA Shalena Cook Jones and a former top deputy and prosecutor Jenny Parker, highlights key questions about progressive prosecution, staffing, transparency, and protecting victims of crime.”
“Follow the money: Liberty County sheriff campaign donations” by Robin Kemp
“[William] Bowman, the incumbent and a Democrat, has reported the biggest war chest at $42,101. Other candidates running in the Democratic primary include Kevin Hofkin with $16,167.10 reported in donations; Keith Jenkins, with $11,242.84; and Gary Richardson, with a total of $26,327.75, including $24,361.48 in cash and $1,966.27 in in-kind donations.”
“In campaign’s final hours, Georgia Senate District 1 candidates battle over images” by Craig Nelson
“[Incumbent Sen. Ben] Watson’s campaign, along with an Atlanta-based political action committee supporting his candidacy, have blanketed District 1 with fliers imploring voters to look at the images of [challenger Beth] Majeroni’s removal from the board meeting last year in a far different way.”
“Brunswick DA race: Prosecutors with different answers to history” by Jake Shore
“John B. Johnson’s contention is that he helped build the [district attorney’s] office to what it is today and that [incumbent] Keith Higgins is not trying nearly as many cases as he should. While leaning on his experience as to why voters should trust him, Johnson has had to address accusations of prosecutorial misconduct that he has accrued over the years.”
“Georgia’s legal leadership rips partisan politics, ignores their own donation histories” by Craig Nelson
“What [the 16 former Supreme Court chief justices, past presidents of the state bar, and former directors of the state’s judicial watchdog] did not mention in their missive, however, are their own campaign contributions to the incumbent Supreme Court justice, in a hotly contested race with a former U.S. congressman who has made abortion the centerpiece of his campaign.”
ICYMI
- Housing in Savannah: Some SCAD students say they’re facing a housing crisis.
- Building prosperity: Former 1st District state senator and state representative, Eric Johnson, now Savannah Joint Development Authority project director for Hyundai, says electric vehicle projects are driving local investment.
- Police training: Georgia requires fewer hours of basic training for law enforcement officers than any state but Hawaii.
- Chokehold: Coastal Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter says the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory agenda is poised to choke the prospects for increased prosperity.
- A win: Critics of Georgia’s election system rejoiced, as Ed Lindsey, a former Republican state lawmaker is replaced on the state election board with conservative media personality Janelle King.
- Trump ally: At their state party convention in Columbus over the weekend, Georgia Republicans elected Amy Kremer to the Republican National Committee. Kremer helped organize the pro-Donald Trump rally on Jan. 6, 2021, that led to a mob storming the U.S. Capitol.
- ‘I hear them’: President Joe Biden told Morehouse graduates he’s paying attention to those protesting the war in Gaza.
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In campaign’s final hours, Georgia Senate District 1 candidates battle over images
Video images of candidate being carried out of meeting remain catalyst for both Watson, Majeroni campaigns.
Georgia Senate District 1: Watson, Majeroni battle over brand
The stark differences between the two candidates over who is more authentically conservative and Republican have made the District 1 Senate race a bellwether election in Coastal Georgia, a battle-of-the-brands test of how deep into local Republican ranks the appeal of Majeroni’s far-right conservatism does — or doesn’t — go.
Follow the money: Liberty County sheriff campaign donations
The Current combed through all candidates filings in the Liberty County Sheriff’s race to find out how much each has received in donations, who gave them that money, and how those candidates reported spending it.
Reform, staffing issues take center stage in Chatham DA election
DA Shalena Cook Jones says she will continue efforts to reform criminal justice system if reelected. Challenger Jenny Parker says office is failing at prosecuting violent crime.
Federal panel prescribes new mental health strategy to curb maternal deaths
Experts say the lack of screening has driven higher rates of mental illness, suicide, and drug overdoses that are now the leading causes of death in the first year after a woman gives birth.
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