Voters head to the polls to decide Augusta’s District 1 Commission runoff. Bill Fennoy and Matt Aitken looking to take over for Betty Beard with the Commission’s racial balance at stake. WJBF News Channel 6’s George Eskola has the story.

Tuesday, voters in Augusta’s District 1 head back to the polls for a runoff election. Candidates William Fennoy and Matt Aitken are vying to fill the seat left vacant by Betty Beard. Turnout for the runoff is expected to be light.

For Augusta commission District 1, a runoff will be scheduled between Matt Aitken and William Fennoy.  They were the top vote getters Tuesday night.  For District 3, Joe Bowles is the winner.  In District 5, William Lockett edges out former commissioner Bobby Hankerson.  And in District 9, it’s a solid win for J.R. Hatney with just over 98 percent of the vote.  On the school board side, Patsy Scott will take over for her late husband, longtime educator and board member Joe Scott.  Steve Smith wins re-election as Marshal.

Tuesday is Election Day, in the Garden City, but Election Officials say the big winner appears to be apathy. Even with three contested Commission races on the ballot, turnout will struggle to top ten percent. WJBF News Channel 6’s George Eskola has the story.

Augusta’s next splost is a done deal, but at what cost? Voters overwhelmingly approved extending the one-cent sales tax, with more than 70 percent of the vote, but turnout was terrible…less than 10,000 voters took part. It cost more than $83,000 to hold this referendum, so on a per-vote basis, this was an expensive election.

In Richmond County, the results are in…many cast their ballots Tuesday on the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or S.P.L.O.S.T. There was a really low turnout…but a big price tag for area projects…$184 million worth of sales tax money at stake. WJBF News channel 6’s Barclay Bishop has more.

Voting is underway in Tuesday’s Senate runoff in Georgia. The race between Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss and Democrat challenger Jim Martin could decide whether Democrats get a 60-vote super majority in the U.S. Senate. Neither candidate got the required 50% plus one in last month’s election. But, what kind of interest has the runoff generated? Election officials say voter turnout was expected to be light. WJBF News Channel 6’s Renita Crawford was out and about to gauge the turnout.

Richmond County taxpayers will foot $75,000 bill for December 2nd runoff.

With a record number of registered voters officials were predicting long lines and waits at Augusta’s 52 polling places. but most voters did not face long lines and many were in and out in minutes.

Record turnout for advance voting in Augusta and big numbers of first time voters, but are these newcomers slowing down the process, adding to the waits that are running in some cases two hours long?

Voters in Augusta have been casting ballots early since late September, but the balloting is not slowing down, it’s setting records and is expected to stay busy. Voters are facing waits of 45 minutes to 2 hours.