Danely Cruz changed her voter registration from Athens to her hometown of Cedartown and drove to Polk County on Election Day to vote in a special congressional election after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Georgia’s 14th Congressional District seat in January.
Why It’s Newsworthy: Nearly 1 in 5 Georgia voters has never cast a ballot, and turnout remains significantly higher in presidential elections than in local races, highlighting gaps in civic participation that can directly impact communities.Cruz, a third-year history and political science student at the University of Georgia, said local elections motivated her more than presidential ones.
“With local elections, you have a little more of a voice,” Cruz said. “Those people are really impacting the day-to-day.”
Nearly 1 in 5 of Georgia’s 7.3 million active registered voters has never cast a ballot, according to an analysis of March 2026 Georgia voter registration data. More Georgia voters last cast a ballot in a presidential election than in any other type of race.
Polk County, where Cruz is registered, had 12,400 active voters who last cast a ballot in a presidential election. Just 9,507 active voters last cast a ballot in a non-presidential race.
Cruz said she recognized that many voters felt their ballots did not matter, but she disagreed.
If a bunch of the small percentages say ‘Well, I’m such a small percentage, I’m not going to vote,’ then that just wipes out the small percentage,” she said.
Cruz interned in the Georgia Senate this session. She said lawmakers across party lines debated several voting bills. She said the experience reinforced her trust in the voting process.
Cruz said local races drew her attention first because local officials are more accessible than state and federal officials.
“I think it’s important, especially on the local side,” Cruz said. “You have more of a chance to meet your commissioner or meet your representative or meet your sheriff.”
The presidential to local ratio shows how many presidential voters there are for every one local voter. So a ratio of 4.0 means for every person who last voted locally, four people only showed up for president. The higher the number, the more dependent that county is on presidential elections to drive turnout. In this dataset, Macon has the lowest ratio, meaning the turnout for local elections is similar to presidential elections. Polk, Cruz’s native county, has a ratio of 1.3, representing 1.3 times more people voted in the presidential election than the last local election. (Datawrapper/Emily Sternkopf)
Cruz said she researches candidates by visiting their websites, reading outside coverage and meeting them in person when possible. She advised first-time voters to look past campaign advertising and evaluate candidates on their records and policies.
Emily Sternkopf is a sophomore majoring in journalism with a minor in law, jurisprudence and the state.
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