Just under 130,000 of Forsyth County’s 163,984 registered voters cast a ballot on Election Day, through mail-in voting or by early voting for the Nov. 3 general election.
According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, which was last updated around 11 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, 129,876 votes had been counted, or 79.2% of Forsyth County’s registered voters.
Mandi Smith, Forsyth County’s director of voter registrations and elections, said of those ballots, more than half — 85,271 — were done through in-person, advance voting during the three weeks leading up to the election, 30,975 ballots were absentee by mail and 13,630 were cast on Election Day.
Smith said it took a lot of work to make sure that many residents had their voices heard and thanked all that were involved in making the election happen.
“It takes an incredible amount of time, and physical labor, and effort and energy, and dedication on the part of so many people in order to hold an election,” she said. “There are too many people to list that deserve thanks for the work that they did to ensure that Forsyth County voters were able to securely cast their ballot, but there are a few that have to have a shout-out — our poll workers and our departmental staff, who have put in countless hours — as well as the county administration for affording us the resources that we needed in order to hold a successful election.”
As of 5 p.m. on Friday, just under 5 million ballots had been counted in Georgia as the state had the attention of much of the nation as results appeared more like to go toward a Democratic candidate for the first time since 1992.
As of press time, Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden had a slim majority over Republican incumbent President Donald Trump, who received 2,455,426 and 2,451,191 votes, respectively, or 49.4% and 49.37% of the total.
Libertarian Jo Jorgensen earned 61,601, about 1.2% of the total.
Also as of press time, it appeared both of the state’s Senate races were headed to a runoff. Runoffs are held in certain races where no candidate receives 50% of the vote total plus one vote.
Republican incumbent David Perdue, earned 2,452,133, about 49.8% of the total, compared to Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff’s 2,356,587, or 47.9% and Libertarian candidate Shane Hazel, who received 113,813 votes, or 2.3% of the vote.
In the race to fill the unexpired term of former Sen. Johnny Isakson, who stepped down last year due to health issues, the top two vote-getters were Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican who was chosen by Gov. Brian Kemp to replace Isakson until the election could be held and received 1,268,219 votes, about 26% of the total and Democrat Raphael Warnock, who earned 1,606,285 votes, or about 32.9% of the total.
Doug Collins, a Republican Congressman who represented north Forsyth and other counties in northeast Georgia, received 976,565 votes, or about 20% of the total.
Another race with local connections, the contest for the District 4 seat on the state’s Public Service Commission between Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, Jr. — father of District 26 state Rep.-elect Lauren McDonald, III — and Democrat and Forsyth County resident Daniel Blackman, appeared to be headed to a runoff.
As of Friday, McDonald held 2,405,266 votes, about 49.98% of the total, to Blackman’s 2,257,054, or 46.9%, and Libertarian Nathan Wilson’s 149,958 votes, or 3.1%.
The runoff for state and local runoffs is Tuesday, Dec. 1 and the runoff for federal races will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
While Democratic candidates made strides across the state, in Forsyth County, considered a Republican stronghold, Conservative candidates were still heavily favored across the board.
