MACON, Ga. — Tuesday's primary elections may be over, but some candidates still have work to do in a June runoff.
A handful of Central Georgia races will head to runoffs June 18 to select a candidate for the November general election or to take office.
"It has been a constant ever since the election code was rewritten in 1964," University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock explained.
Bullock knows a thing or two about runoffs. Some might say he wrote the book on them — because he did. Georgia's system has been on the books since the 1960s but the practice has been around much longer, developed as a safety net.
"If you have a large field of candidates and some scoundrel managed to lead that large field with 20%, 25%, 30% of the vote, they're going to go ahead and hold office," Bullock said.
In Georgia, a candidate needs 50% plus one vote to win an election outright. If one candidate doesn't hit that number, the top two candidates battle it out a few weeks later.
At the Bibb County Board of Elections, they're still trying to figure out which races will head to a runoff. They're finishing counting up provisional votes and a handful of other late-arriving ballots.
"It will probably be district races. So it won't, it probably won't involve the entire county," Elections Supervisor Tom Gillon said.
That's just one of the rules. Voters cannot change parties from primary to runoff, either.
"You'll have to vote in the same party in the runoff," Gillon explained. "Unless you voted non-partisan."
Voters who didn't cast ballots Tuesday can choose either party's ballot in the runoff. Absentee voters should get a new absentee ballot in the mail, but Gillon says those who didn't can still request an absentee ballot for the June runoff. They must request them by June 7.
Gillon says they'll likely run early voting for one week at the elections office. The latest early voting can start for the runoff is June 10.