Raffensperger, Eaton win election runoff

Published 8:41 am Wednesday, December 5, 2018

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The 2018 election season is finally over.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, republicans Brad Raffensperger and Chuck Eaton won their runoff elections for Georgia Secretary of State and Public Service Commissioner, respectively.

In the secretary of state race, Raffensperger won 51.97 percent of the vote, or 756,083 votes, over democratic challenger John Barrow, who took 48.03 percent of ballots cast, or 698,847 votes.

In the public service commission race, Eaton won with 51.83 percent of the vote, or 749,871 votes, compared to democrat Lindy Miller’s 48.17 percent, or 697,035 votes.

Crisp County’s voting results mirrored the statewide totals, although the margins of victory were much wider.

Crisp voters chose Raffensperger by 69.6 to 30.4 percent, or 1,687 votes to 737 for Barrow. The margin was even wider in Crisp County for Eaton, who took 71.56 percent of the vote, or 1,711 ballots, to Miller’s 28.44 percent, or 680 votes.

Voter turnout in Crisp County was 20.85 percent, which is relatively high for a runoff election. Likewise, the statewide voter turnout was 22.68 percent. More than 1.45 million Georgians cast ballots in the runoff, while Crisp County turned out 2,434 voters.

Republicans also took the day in Dooly and Wilcox counties.

Raffensperger won by a margin of 52.22 percent to Barrow’s 47.78 percent in Dooly, and Eaton won 54.04 percent of the vote compared to Millers 45.96 percent. Dooly County voter turnout was also high, with 27.15 percent of registered voters — 1,539 voters — casting ballots.

Wilcox County voter turnout for the runoff was 25.87 percent, or 1,096 of the county’s 4,237 registered voters.

Wilcox chose Raffensperger 75.37 percent to 24.23 percent for Barrow in the secretary of state race. Eaton won 75.79 percent compared to Miller’s 24.21 percent.