Jones County voters re-elected their Board of Education chairman in the May 24 election and mirrored almost all the results in the state races.
The voter turnout for the party primaries and BOE contest was 31.93 percent with 6,440 ballots counted, including 12 provisional ballots. The number of registered voters in Jones County is 20,167.
Ginger Bailey won a total of 53.66 percent of the vote for Board of Education Chairman. That percentage fluctuated a small amount if only considering in-person voting on Election Day. She received 51.8 percent in that vote, and 54 percent in advance voting.
Bailey’s strongest showing was with absentee by mail voters, where she received 67 percent of the vote. The voting percentages received by her challengers Brady Skinner and Max Wood were steady in the 20s for each voting method.
Jones County voters selected Gov. Brian Kemp as the Republican candidate in November by 74.4 percent. Statewide Kemp received 73.69 percent.
Bert Jones did better in Jones County with 68.28 percent of the vote to the 50.08 percent showing statewide with 99 percent of the votes tallied. That number needed to stay above 50 percent to avoid a runoff with Butch Miller who was second in the race with 31 percent of the vote.
The date of the runoff is June 21, and there will be at least four races on the ballot for Jones County voters. So far, those races are all to decide the Democratic candidates. The Democratic candidates receiving the most votes for Lt. Governor were Kwanza Hall and Charlie Bailey. The race to be the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State is between Bee Nguyen and Dee Hawkins-Haigler.
The contest to be the Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Insurance also failed to have a candidate with over 50 percent of the vote. The runoff will be between Janice Laws Robinson and Raphael Baker. William Boddie Jr. and Nicole Horn will compete in the runoff to be the Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Labor.
Brad Raffensperger was chosen to be the Republican candidate for Secretary of State in Jones County with 51.59 percent of the vote compared to 32.79 percent for Jody Hice. Those percentages are very close to the 52.31 and 35.38 percent statewide.
In Jones County, Rick Williams received 52.18 percent of the vote to 42.93 percent for the next closest, Rick Jeffares. Districtwide, Williams received 53 percent to Jeffares 40.67 percent.
House of Representatives District 144 incumbent Dale Washburn received 82.51 percent of the vote in Jones County and 84.30 percent districtwide.
State School Superintendent Richard Woods received 79.27 percent of the vote in Jones County to be the Republican candidate and received 72.63 statewide. His Democratic opponent will be Alisha Thomas Searcy, who received 55.7 percent in Jones County and 57 percent statewide.
Jones County voters differed by showing strong support for former State Senator Floyd Griffin who ran to become the Democratic Candidate for Secretary of State, giving him 48.13 percent of the vote.
Statewide however, he received 11 percent of the vote, not enough to be in the runoff.
Jones County voters continue to prefer voting in-person on election day with a margin of 58 percent compared to 37 percent who cast their ballots during early voting. Only four percent of voters in the May 24 election chose to vote by absentee ballot.
Fun fact: among Jones County precincts, the smallest precinct in numbers, Sanders, had the highest voter turnout of 39.71 percent. The lowest turnout was in the largest precinct, Roberts, with 24 percent.
