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Turnout Described as Light

Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 7/20/2004 6:03:34 PM

Precinct voting in the state's general primary today has been described as light.

State officials had predicted that about 30 percent of the state's 3.8 million registered voters will make it to the polls.

Secretary of State Cathy Cox raised the prediction to 30 percent last week after receiving reports of unexpectedly large numbers of advance voters.

More than 76,000 people took advantage of the early voting option last week between Monday and Friday.

A 30 percent turnout would roughly match the turnout two years ago and exceed that of 2000, when some 26.5 percent of registered voters went to the polls.

The Secretary of State's office says its results include all Georgia counties except for Johnson County.

During the early voting period, which lasted from Monday to Friday last week, more Democrats than Republicans cast ballots.

Of the total, 42,118 selected the Democratic ballot and 33, 741 selected a Republican one. Only about 200 people opted to vote solely in the nonpartisan election for judges.

DeKalb County had the highest number of early votes -– about 4,700 -- among the counties included in the preliminary total.

The advance voting allowed people to go to the registrar's office in their county and cast a ballot without having to give a reason, as they would have to do for an absentee ballot.