GILMER COUNTY, Ga. – As many expected and even publicly stated, Gilmer County did notice a drop in election voting turnout from the November Presidential Election to January’s Runoff Elections.

However, that drop has many surprised at how little the drop was. November saw 16,576 people cast their votes through one of the four voting paths including Election Day Precinct voting, Advanced in-person voting, Absentee by mail voting, and provisional ballot voting.

January saw 14,847 people vote in the county through those paths.

That equals 74.45 percent of the population in November and 65.17 percent of the population in January according to the Gilmer County Registrar’s Office. Only a 9.28 percent drop. This percentage comes from the Registrar’s records of Registered voters which also increase between the two elections from 22,264 in November to 22,781 in January.

January saw more people voting on Election Day with 5,601 compared to November’s 4,907.

January did see less in-person voting and absentee by mail with in-person reaching 6,292 (November – 8,150) and absentee reaching 2,949 (November – 3,506).

As previously reported, the increases have continued to rise throughout the year, some are calling ballot harvesting by one party as part of the reason for the increases, especially in absentee by mail, though it decreased from November to January. Others are simply citing the current times and consequences as the reason for increases.

Indeed, several people have made note that they are first time voters, like James Short who said he voted in the November election for the first time because it is the most important election he has seen in his life.

Meanwhile, the outcomes and ramifications of the elections, suspected fraud, and division among citizens continues spiraling into increasing tension among the nation and it’s citizens.

These hostilities are even affecting local rural counties as neighbor Pickens County recently posted deputies to polling stations during the January Election. The Sheriff’s Office issued a pre-emptive statement beforehand assuring citizens that there was no present threat. However, the did say that the action was taken due to threats received and dealt with in other counties.

The importance and effects that elections are having on people is continuing to be shown in total votes numbers in counties across the nation. Even with a drop in voting in January’s Runoff Election, Gilmer is still a prime example of this with well over half of its registered voting population turning out for a runoff election.