As of noon Monday, 336 Republicans and 237 Democrats - 2 percent of the county’s 33,518 registered voters - had taken part in early voting, which ends at 5 p.m. Friday. Absentee ballots have been returned by 147 Democrats and 141 Republicans.
“Last week it really started picking up and several were in here this morning, so I think it’s going to be another good week,” Chief Registrar Amy Hyatt said Monday.
The ballot includes races for governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. senator, U.S. representative, secretary of state, attorney general, commissioner of agriculture, commissioner of insurance, commissioner of labor, state senator, state representative and public service commissioner.
The only locally contested race is on the Democratic ballot between incumbent District 5 County Commissioner Richard English Jr. and challenger Richard Kimbrough .
Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe, a Democrat, doesn’t have opposition in either party.
The ballot includes a referendum on whether to grant redevelopment powers to Troup County, LaGrange and Hogansville. Eligible development projects would pay existing taxes on the property, but could use additional tax revenue generated by the development to finance a bond issue that would pay for infrastructure and other up-front costs. Once the bond issue is retired after 20 or 30 years, the local governments would get the full tax benefit.
West Point voters approved redevelopment powers last year as a financing incentive for developers who otherwise might not go forward with a project.
The Republican ballot includes a nonbinding straw poll on whether the state constitution should be amended “to provide that the paramount right to life is vested in each human being from their earliest biological beginning until natural death.”
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