Trump and Clinton winners in Towns County, state

Towns County voters have spoken – Donald Trump is the candidate most favored by Republicans, and Hillary Clinton the favorite among Democrats, with those results being mirrored at the state level.

More than 45 percent of the county’s 7,839 registered voters cast ballots toward the Georgia Presidential Preference Primary.

The four precincts in Towns – Hiawassee, Young Harris, Macedonia and Tate City – saw 2,401 people turn up at the polls to cast votes the day of the primary on Tuesday, March 1.

Another 1,062 people voted early in person at the Old Rock Jail in the weeks leading up to the primary. Adding in the 74 mailed-in absentee ballots brings the total of votes cast by county residents in the PPP to 3,537 votes.

Further breakdown reveals that 1,998 people voted for Republican candidates, and only 403 voters opted for Democratic candidates.

Trump held a commanding lead in the county, capturing 46.01 percent of Republican votes with 1,356, followed by Marco Rubio with 608 votes at 20.63 percent of the vote, Ted Cruz with 588 votes at 19.95 percent, Ben Carson with 196 at 6.65 percent and John Kasich with 168 at 5.7 percent.

Jeb Bush, who suspended his presidential bid following his defeat in South Carolina, came in sixth with 10 votes and 0.34 percent of votes cast.

The margin between first and second place was much slimmer on the Democratic side, with Clinton winning 312 votes at 52.88 percent of the vote, to Bernie Sanders’ 266 votes at 45.08 percent.

Statewide, Trump finished first with a double-digit lead in percentage points ahead of his GOP rivals, and Clinton also took the top spot with Democrats, getting more than double the votes cast for Sanders.

Check in with the print edition of the Towns County Herald on Wednesday, Feb. 9, for more in-depth primary coverage.

Towns County Demo & Repub Election Results 2016 By Precint