Update:

Polk County’s election results are now available in full below, and one thing is certain: President Trump’s support here locally remains solid, the Republican ticket won out, and Linda Liles will have to go to a run-off to retain her seat on the Polk County Commission.

Full numbers are ready below, but something of note in the final tallies. Some 17,423 people cast a ballot this year out of the 24,189 that were registered and active voters this time around. That’s a 72% turnout, and is higher than the 14,323 ballots cast locally in 2016.

Winners locally include State Rep. Trey Kelley – who was trending to win districtwide – and Jason Anavitarte, who will take over the State Senate District 31 seat with the retirement of State Sen. Bill Heath at year’s end.

Additionally, Commissioner Linda Liles will need another race to decide whether she’ll keep her seat, and in an unexpected result former Commissioner Ricky Clark took second place in the race.

Liles took 38.41% of the vote taking the top spot in the polls in a five-way race, with Clark receiving 22.23% of the vote, Glenn Robinson taking 18.13% and Jody Bentley Smith taking 16.27%. The 4.95% of the vote that remained went to Chris Roberson.

Liles needed 50% + 1 vote to take a majority and win outright on the night.

More on run-off races to come.

For now, here’s some additional information about local races with more than Polk County reporting:

State Senate District 31 – Jason Anavitarte clear winner with 3 counties reporting and 65,948 votes to 27,107 votes for Tianna Smith. That was 93,055 votes cast in total between Polk, Paulding and Haralson counties.

State House District 16 – State Rep. Trey Kelley will continue his service into a new term in office after winning the majority of votes in the district covering Polk, along with portions of Bartow and Haralson counties.

He took a 78.12 to 21.88% victory over Democrartic challenger Lyndsay Arrendale, earning 18,074 votes to 5,062 votes across the district. Kelley will start his fifth term in office in 2021 and currently serves as the Majority Whip for the GOP in the state house.

14th District Congressional race – Marjorie Greene took a big win in this race for 2020 after beating out a number of challengers in a crowded primary, then a run-off in August with Dr. John Cowan of Rome. After Kevin Van Ausdal abruptly dropped out of the race in recent months and moved out of state, Greene was left to take the race.

She won 206,929 votes to 70,000 even for the Democratic challenger who wouldn’t have been able to serve if he won. That’s a 74.72 to 25.28% split across the district, though that was with 11 of 12 counties reporting at the time with Floyd County only partially reported.

Previously posted:

The people have spoken, the polls are closed and now its just a matter of counting the votes.

At least 16,000 people in total are reported to have cast a ballot as 7 p.m. rolled around and the seven precincts closed with the 6 p.m. totals, with early voting and absentee ballots included that have been returned. The Polk County Board of Elections reported no problems throughout the day during the election, which was made easier with more than 13,000 people having cast a ballot in the three weeks prior to the 2020 Election.

However, the process of opening mail-in ballots and processing the early vote totals is underway at this time, and early returns are expected soon.

Note that updates will be added overall as additional precincts report. When a precinct has reported in, I’ll make mention of it in updates.

Below are the results that are available so far from Polk County: (No returns available as of 7:18 p.m.)

Update 9:06 p.m.:

Some absentee ballots are still being counted and discussed – 320 in total – that require adjudication before an unofficial tally on the night can be fully tabulated, while precincts begin bringing in their results as well. Check back for updates on numbers as soon as they become available.

Update 10:06 p.m.

Around 200 ballots are still being looked at by the Board of Elections this evening that came in by mail, and after that it is expected that the entire results for Polk County will be available at once.

Presidential Race

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence: 13,576

Fmr. Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris: 3,650

Jo Jorgensen: 149

Senate Race (Perdue)

U.S. Senator David Perdue: 13,268

Jon Ossoff: 3,530

Sane Hazel: 415

Senate Race (Loeffler)

U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler: 6,934

U.S. Rep. Doug Collins: 5,227

Rev. Raphael Warnock: 2,326

Other candidates in the race received a small amount of votes compared to these three.

U.S. House (District 14)

Marjorie Greene: 13,241

Kevin Van Ausdal: 3,483

State Senate District 31

Jason Anavitarte: 13,220

Tianna Smith: 3,529

State House District 16

State Rep. Trey Kelley: 12,480

Lyndsay Arrendale: 4,143

Polk County Commission District 2

Ricky Clark: 3,411

Linda Liles: 5,893

Chris Roberson: 760

Glenn K. Robinson: 2,782

Jody Bentley Smith: 2,497