County voters will face new precincts for Super Tuesday

Polls will open at 7 a.m. in Columbia County for Tuesday's presidential primaries.

For the next 12 hours, nearly 350 workers will man the county's 43 polling sites, but the make-up of this year's ballot is not expected to draw a huge crowd.

The county's Board of Elections Director Deborah Marshall said she is predicting a low turnout for the local contribution to Super Tuesday, when voters in 10 states including Georgia will determine how 1,151 delegates are split among the four remaining Democratic presidential candidates.

"The state is predicting a low turnout, only 26 percent," Marshall said, while still encouraging voters to participate. "You've got nine people on the ballot for the Democrats, but the majority of them have already dropped out of the race."

Because Georgia holds open primaries, Republicans and Independents can vote on the Democrat's ballot.

The nonbinding flag referendum that also will be on both ballots did not elicit much excitement from the 160 residents who took advantage of the advance voting option last week at the Board of Elections' office, Marshall said.

"People who have come in here to vote absentee have not really been interested in voting in the flag issue, saying, 'it's not the flag we wanted to vote on,"' she said.

Tuesday's ballots will include a choice between the state flag adopted by the 2003 General Assembly, modeled after the Stars and Bars flag of the Confederacy, and a 2001 version with the state seal and a miniature grouping of former flags.

Absent will be the state's 1956 flag with a Confederate battle cross that had evoked strong support from Southern heritage activists

Tuesday's primaries will be the first time the county's newest precincts are in effect. The U.S. Department of Justice recently gave approval to split six voting precincts where either driving distances were too far or the population had grown.

Marshall also said that the polling site at Kiokee Baptist Church will now be located in the church's new fellowship hall and instructed voters to look for signs at the precinct.

Here are new precinct sites that will be used Tuesday:

Precinct/Site Being Split New Precinct/Site

015 -- Lewis United Methodist Church 016 -- Woodlawn Baptist Church

030 -- Grovetown City Hall 033 -- Grovetown Middle School

050 -- Burks Mountain Road Fire Station 051 -- Damascus Baptist Church

060 -- Evans Elementary School 062 -- Parkway Baptist Church

132 -- Wesley United Methodist Church 134 -- Columbia County Engineering Department

061 -- Greenbrier High School 063 -- Mount Olive Baptist Church

The voting site for precinct 100 is moving from Martinez Community Center to Augusta Christian Schools.