This online news website is owned and operated by Becky Watts. The Editor can be reached at 770-468-7583 or at editor(at)PikeCountyTimes(dot)com. Pike County Times is a website for citizens to keep up with local events and stay informed about Pike County government. It began on November 13, 2006 as a watchdog on county government and has turned into an online newspaper.
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By Editor Becky Watts
ZEBULON - Citizens gathered inside out of the cold tonight at the Courthouse to listen to Probate Judge Brandenburg to read the results from each race aloud. Many thanks to Judge Brandenburg for allowing citizens to come in out of the cold!
Voter turnout in Pike County was very high. Of the 10,630 registered voters in Pike County, 8,151 cast votes in this election. That is 76.68% of the voters casting their ballots in this race. Tonight's results are unofficial and will become official on Friday afternoon. There are a handful of military ballots that could be included in the final results. Final results are as follows:
In the Presidential Race, Pike County voters chose Mitt Romney over Barack Obama by a margin of 81.93% (6,660) to 16.67% (1,355). The Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson received 84 votes with 1.03% of the vote.
The Homestead Exemption passed overwhelmingly by citizens of Pike County by a vote of 5,874 (76.03%) to 1,852 (23.97%).
Sunday Package Sales passed by a margin of 4,445 (56.07%) to 3,483 (43.93%).
The Educational Sales Tax or E-SPLOST passed by a margin of 4,292 (54.32%) to 3,609 (45.68%).
The 2008 Presidential Election was historic for Pike County. There was 45 days of early voting--by absentee ballot only because there was no electronic ballot early voting machines--with 4,402 paper ballots cast. There is a Pike Journal Reporter picture of the mass of ballots on a table in the courtroom that hangs outside of voter Registrar's office in the Courthouse that shows exactly what this looks like. I remember hanging out at the courthouse that night into the wee hours of the morning and we waited out the process.
The 2012 Presidential Election has been historic as well. Early voting was allowed by paper ballots as well as absentee voting in person for 16 days only. 4,450 ballots were cast during this short period of time. That is more than the number of ballots that were cast in 2008. This number is amazing and is rivaled only by the final number of votes that were cast in this election Pike County.
Thank you to every single person who took the time to exercise your constitutional right to vote.
Here are totals by precinct on our local races:
Absentee By Mail:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 276 (75.20%), No 91 (24.80%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 170 (44.74%), No 210 (55.26%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 174 (47.03%), No 196 (52.97%)
Molena:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 347 (72.44%), No 132 (27.56%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 279 (57.17%), No 209 (42.83%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 255 (52.80%), No 228 (47.20%)
Hollonville:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 370 (76.29%), No 115 (23.71%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 314 (62.30%), No 190 (37.70%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 261 (52.10%), No 240 (47.90%)
Meansville:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 331 (77.16%), No 98 (22.84%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 233 (52.60%), No 210 (47.40%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 249 (56.46%), No 192 (43.54%)
Lifsey Springs:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 230 (68.25%), No 107 (31.75%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 182 (52.75%), No 163 (47.25%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 168 (48.14%), No 181 (51.86%)
Zebulon:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 249 (67.85%), No 118 (32.15%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 216 (55.67%), No 172 (44.33%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 201 (53.17%), No 177 (46.83%)
Concord:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 331 (73.72%), No 118 (26.28%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 285 (62.64%), No 170 (37.36%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 254 (55.95%), No 200 (44.05%)
Absentee in Person:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 2,989 (78.02%), No 842 (21.98%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 2,159 (55.23%), No 1,750 (44.77%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 2,143 (54.75%), No 1,771 (%)
2nd District:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 451 (76.83%), No 136 (23.17%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 365 (59.54%), No 248 (40.46%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 353 (58.15%), No 254 (41.85%)
Williamson:
Homestead Exemption: Yes 300 (75.95%), No 95 (24.05%)
Sunday Package Sales: Yes 242 (60.05%), No 161 (39.95%)
E-SPLOST: Yes 234 (57.92%), No 170 (42.08%)
As of 1 am, all of the results are not in on the Constitutional Amendments, but the votes that are in show Amendment #1 for Charter Schools being approved with 151 of 159 counties reporting to the Secretary of State. Yes is 58.32% of the vote with 2,088,522 votes and No is 41.68% of the vote with 1,492,445 votes. Constitutional Amendment #2 which would allow the state of Georgia to enter into multiyear rental agreements shows approval by a margin of 63.57% (2,176,421 votes) to 36.43% (1,247,198 votes). Readers can check up to date results by clicking here.