106,000 undervotes in Georgia in 2004

So where the hell was Common Cause when it was WORSE in Georgia?  106,000 voters thrown to the wolves.  We begged for help.

Published in the AJC/Political Insider column on: 10/27/04

Here's a stunner.

Last summer, we told you that Republicans had captured the title of majority party in Georgia, by virtue of the number of GOP ballots cast in the July primary. The numbers were unofficial. The secretary of state's office simply used the total votes cast in the U.S. Senate race in each party.

As it turns out, that's not the whole story. Not even close.

In the next few days, Secretary of State Cathy Cox will release numbers showing that on July 20 voters requested more Democratic ballots (731,111) than Republican ones (671,961). The numbers are based on ballot counts slowly being assembled from the 159 counties.

For Democrats, the good news is that they're entitled to hold on to their majority-party status, at least until 2006. But there's bad news, too. On the Democratic side of the U.S. Senate race, 625,115 votes were cast. That means nearly 106,000 Democrats -- 14 percent of the total -- took a look at the eight-candidate field. And passed.

Denise Majette came in first. Cliff Oxford came in second. But None of the Above was a close third -- and nearly made the runoff.

Given the current state of the electorate, more than one top Democrat could be administering self-inflicted kicks to the posterior on Tuesday, for not taking the race more seriously.

Roxanne Jekot