Just over a third of the number of Paulding voters who took part in the July 31 primary election cast ballots in Tuesday’s runoff that determined the winners of three races that impacted the county.

After last week’s five-day early and advance voting period and Tuesday’s election day, unofficial results showed that 6,235 of the county’s 74,867 registered voters had cast ballots—a turnout of 8.3 percent. The July 31 primary had stronger participation with 17,854 voters casting ballots, putting its turnout at 23.9 percent.

Deidre Holden, supervisor of Paulding County Elections & Voter Registration, said no problems with voting were reported at any of the county’s 14 precincts.

No voters remained in line at any of the precincts when the polls closed at 7 p.m., she added, and officials were able to start providing the first results just a few minutes after 7. 

“[The precincts] reported on time and in a timely manner, and everything went well,” Holden said.

Unofficial results Tuesday saw State Sen. Bill Heath repelling a challenge from Dallas’ Bill Carruth on his way to another term, Bob Snelling earning the Republican nomination for the new House District 66 seat in a runaway against Michael “Mike” Miller, and incumbent Martin Valbuena narrowly squeaking by challenger Dan Collins in Paulding’s magistrate judge race.

Tuesday’s runoff results will be certified by county election officials on Friday.

Though voters had a full week to take part in the runoff’s early and advance voting period at the county elections office, Holden said more people voted Tuesday than during the previous week. 

“As the day progressed, we were seeing between 300 and 350 votes per hour, and it kind of increased towards 5 p.m.—5 to 7 is always a busy time,” Holden said.

“[But] we were very busy during early voting for the runoff—we voted more than we had anticipated,” she added.

This year’s general election will be held on Nov. 6. Voters will have three full weeks to vote early, as the early voting period will begin Monday, Oct. 15, and end Friday, Nov. 2, at the elections office. The weeklong advance voting period will begin Oct. 29, giving county residents three additional places where they can vote.

Holden says she believes most of the general election votes will be made prior Nov. 6’s election day.

“I think we’ll have more early voters in November than we will on election day,” she said. “In 2008, we voted close to 32,000 people early and then 21,000 on election day.”