Voter
Turnout In Primaries
On Tuesday, Unpredictable
On Tuesday, Unpredictable
True Citizen Editor
But county Democrats and Republicans will have a full plate to consider when it comes to races for U.S. Senate, 12th Congressional District, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, commissioner of agriculture, commissioner of insurance, state school superintendent, commissioner of labor, public service commission, state representative from the 100th House District, justices of the State Supreme Court, justices for the Court of Appeals of Georgia, judges of Superior Court for the Augusta Judicial District and Burke County State Court Solicitor General.
Democrats will select their candidates while the Republicans will do the same on their ballots. The party winners in the primary will face each other in the November general election. However, there are a number of non-partisan races, which means Democrats and Republicans, can vote for their choice of candidates.
Polls for the primary will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Burke County has 16 precincts including absentee ballots. Barbara Hammett, the executive director of the Burke County Board of Elections and Registration, said 57 applications for absentee ballots had been requested from her office as of Aug. 12.
They must be mailed back in to be sure they meet the 7 p.m. closing time on election day, she said.
For the primary, Burke County has 10,294 active registered voters eligible to cast ballots.
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| Jeanette Anfield-Lewis |
Willie
A. Jordan
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Randy
Broxton
|
As of Monday, Georgia’s Secretary of State Cathy Cox has not said whether she believes the primary vote will be light, moderate or heavy. Her prediction is expected by the end of the week.
Usually, primary voting is light because it had been held in July in the past. But now that it is in August this time, political observers say they believe it will be “moderate.”
Hammett also said Monday that new precinct cards for the entire county should be received by voters this week. If someone does not receive a new card they should call her office immediately in case they have not given the elections board the correct address. The office number is 554-5457.
In District 1, incumbent school board member Jeanette Anfield-Lewis is being challenged by Willie Jordan and Randy Broxton. There are 1,808 voters eligible to vote in this race in District 1.
District 1 precincts include Keysville, St. Clair, Vidette, Gough, Midville, Munnerlyn and Scotts Crossroads.
There has been very little public campaigning by the three candidates although they have been making separate appearances before various groups in the district.
Anfield-Lewis is seeking re-election to a second four-year term. In the 1998 primary, she upset the then incumbent Buddy Wren by 10 votes. There are two other board of education seats up in this election but both incumbents, Johnny Jenkins and Willie Latimore are unopposed. The winner of the primary in a non-partisan race is automatically elected to office.( See Rest of Story in The True Citizen).
Teenager
Killed When Car Is Cut In Half
True Citizen Editor
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The
rear portion of this Ford Contour, at right, traveled 129 feet, after being
sheared
in half by a Ford Expedition in Thursday, Aug. 8 crash.
in half by a Ford Expedition in Thursday, Aug. 8 crash.
Burke County Coroner Craig Kennedy said the teenager died at 9:44 a.m. the same day at the Medical College of Georgia Hospital. He said she suffered multiple injuries to the abdomen.
Key became the county’s eighth traffic death for 2002. Last year the county recorded nine traffic related deaths.
Trooper Harnage said Key was riding in the Contour, which was driven by Diana Beasley, 24. While Beasley’s driver’s license listed her as a resident of Windsor, S.C., she reportedly moved to Burke County. Beas-ley was also hospitalized. He said it appears the Contour, which was headed east, ran the stop sign on Winter Road and was struck by a Ford Expedition which was headed north and operated by Thelma Rodgers, 68, of Waynesboro. She was not injured, the trooper said, adding that her vehicle traveled 52 feet after the collision.
The impact was on the passenger side of the Contour where Key was riding causing the car to split in half and ejecting her. The front end came to rest 90 feet from the point of impact on Winter Road, and the rear portion of the vehicle went 38 feet down the roadway before existing it and traveled another 91 feet, literally flying over a fence and ended up in a field of pine trees off Winter Road, according to the report. Trooper Harnage said the crash is still under investigation and that charges are pending the result of a blood alcohol test, which he said is routine in accidents such as this.
Legal
Organ of Burke County, Waynesboro, Sardis, Midville, Keysville, and Girard
