Candidates Mike Dugan and James Camp were both out shaking hands last Friday, trying to drum up public awareness for the upcoming Jan. 8 election. They face multiple competition to their campaigns, including New Year’s doldrums, voter apathy and the big Jan. 7 BCS National Championship college football game.

Early voting is underway for the Georgia Senate District 30 state Senate race, and early indications are that turnout could be extremely light.

“We’ve had very few requests for absentee ballots and very few calls for information on the election,” Becky Deese, Carroll County elections supervisor, said.

Early voting began Wednesday, Jan. 2, and ends tomorrow during the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Carroll County at 423 College Street in Carrollton. Douglas County early voting continues through tomorrow from 8 - 5 p.m. at the voter registration office on the ground floor of the Douglas County Courthouse.

Deese said all registered voters living in the district can cast ballots in SD 30, regardless of whether they voted in the past District 30 elections. The deadline for registering to vote in this election was Dec. 10.

District 30 includes all precincts in Carroll County except Fairfield, Hulett, Lowell and Whitesburg. Six precincts in Douglas County and four precincts in Paulding County are also part of District 30.

Dugan, a Carrollton building contractor and retired military officer, is facing Libertarian candidate Camp of Temple, an IT technician, in the third and final contest for the Senate seat.

The long path to the state Senate seat began with a Nov. 6 special Republican primary, with four candidates seeking the seat being vacated by Republican Bill Hamrick, who resigned in September to accept a Coweta District Superior Court judgeship. Dugan defeated former state Rep. Bill Hembree of Winston in a Dec. 4 runoff to earn the Republican slot on the Jan. 8 ballot.

As a third-party candidate, Camp qualified early for the Jan. 8 general ballot and did not have to participate in the earlier Republican contest.

Camp is promoting his candidacy as the last barrier to a Republican super majority in the Georgia state Senate. He said this District 30 runoff could be the contest that gives the GOP a two-thirds majority at the capitol.

“When you have a super majority, it takes away the will of the people and replaces it with the will of the party establishment,” he said. “With a super majority, Republicans can push through anything they want and overcome any objections to their party agenda.”

Dugan, a political newcomer, used a “new faces and ideas” platform and grassroots campaigning to defeat Hembree, an 18-year experienced political office holder, in the Dec. 4 runoff.

“If voters want something other than business as usual, I’m offering something different,” Dugan said during his November campaign. “We need to do better in government, to get it back to where it should be, so peoples’ voices are represented.”

If elected,Dugan has pledged to hold regular town hall meetings, work for term limits and put a cap on lobbyist gifts.