Less than 5% of voters cast ballot in Chatham Co. district 2 race, election going to runoff

CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Chatham County still doesn’t have an answer on the District 2 commission seat.

Just over 1,200 people went to the polls Tuesday and sent this special election to a runoff.

The runoff comes after no candidate received the 50% plus 1 vote requirement.

Malinda Hodge and David Tootle are the two candidates who received the most votes and will appear on the October 17th runoff ballot.

Hodge received just over 43% of the vote while Tootle got just over 27% in Tuesday’s special election.

Less than 5% of eligible second district voters cast a ballot. County election’s staff say that’s lower than expected.

“That’s surprising because the people in the second district have been known to turn out,” said Billy Wooten, Chatham County Elections Supervisor.

Billy Wooten supervises Chatham County elections and says this was the first time redrawn district maps were used for a race.

“People came to vote thinking they were eligible, but they did not live in District 2. It was the people that were not eligible to vote that we saw at the poll as opposed to the people who were confused.”

Just like the special election, only voters in Chatham County’s second district will be able to vote in the runoff.

Wooten encouraged voters to go Georgia’s “My Voter Page” website to see what county district they live in.

County elections officials say they do plan on holding early voting for the runoff but a date for that has not yet been set.

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