This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Analysis of Oconee County July 31 Election Suggests Voters Treated Races as Separate Matters

An analysis of voting results on Tuesday suggests that voters made decisions on the various contests based on the particular circumstances of the races themselves.

Oconee County voters on Tuesday said an overwhelming no to the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax but reelected Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis, who was one of its strongest local supporters.

In reelecting Davis, the voters rejected challenger and current commissioner Chuck Horton, one of Davis’ strongest critics, but voters gave strong support to incumbent commissioner Jim Luke, who has been even more outspoken of late in his criticism of Davis.

Voters ignored yard signs, billboards, and other extensive advertising and reelected Sheriff Scott Berry for a sixth term, but they turned out the vice chairman of the Board of Education, who was seeking the chairmanship, in favor of someone not even on the Board.

Oconee County voters also strongly supported attorney Doug McKillip over challenger Regina Quick, even though McKillip had been a party to splitting the county’s legislative district, against the recommendation of Davis, among others.

Quick won because of support in neighboring Clarke County.

Overall on Tuesday Oconee County voters were not very sympathetic to female candidates and were more supportive of the status quo than change.

But an analysis of the voting results, with particular focus on patterns across elections across the county’s 13 precincts, indicates there were few such patterns.

Turnout was high, and the evidence is that voters made decisions on the various contests based on the particular circumstances of the races themselves. All contested races were on the Republican ballot, which most voters chose.

For details of this analysis, go to Oconee County Observations.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Oconee