Are Georgia voters tired of heading to the polls?

MACON, Ga. -- This year there have been seven elections that Georgia voters have been asked to cast a ballot for and soon they will be heading to the polls again.

Both of the state's Senate seats are still up for grabs.

Under Georgia law, candidates must receive 50 percent of the vote to win an election. If no candidate breaks 50 percent, the top two vote-getters then face off again in a runoff.

But the need to go out to the polls, again and again, can create weariness among voters called voter fatigue.

Dr. Scott Buchanan, professor of political science and chairman of government and sociology at Georgia College & State University explains voter fatigue as voters getting tired out from many elections.

The fatigue leads to a drop-off in voter participation.

According to the chairman the average voter pays minimal attention to the candidates down the ballot. Run-offs ask people to stay abreast on the issues and find the time to go out to vote. For many people these tasks cause them to simply lose interest.

Presidential elections typically draw in the largest crowd. Second to that are the Democratic and Republican primaries that usually happen in the spring or summer.

In last place in voters' minds are run-offs, which Buchanan says get much less voters.

"The general election run-off that Georgia has, is typically the one that features the lowest or worst voter turn out," he says.

In 2016 there were nine times voters were asked to go to the polls, including five special elections.

In Macon-Bibb, the Presidential Preference Primary in March of that year had just over 31,000 votes in comparison to around 73,000 active voters in the county.

Two months later, the General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election in May had less than 25,000 voters turn out. That election featured primary races for U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives.

There was a run-off for those May primaries that saw voter turnout drop to just 800. Most of the races for the run-off were Superior Court Judges and state representatives.

Later in the year the November general election for President garnered over 63,000 votes, the highest of the year.

Buchanan believes part of this is because Americans give much of the credit for what happens in their daily lives to the White House instead of local officials.

With the upcoming Senate run-offs, Buchanan says Democrats should be energized by the state's election of a Democratic president but questions whether or not they will turnout in the same large numbers as they did on November 3.

History shows that the results in the presidential race have done little to energize the state's voters, particularly the democrats.

In the 1988 Presidential election, Georgia went for Republican George H.W. Bush.

Four years later he was ousted for Bill Clinton across the country and in Georgia.

Similar to today, a U.S. Senate race in Georgia was headed to a run-off in 1992.

Democratic U.S. Senator Wyche Fowler was up against Republican Paul Coverdell. The night of the run-off Coverdell edged out Fowler with a narrow margin of 50 percent to 49 percent. The opposite of how the state went for President.

Since then, only one Democrat has won a run-off in Georgia.

Buchanan believes the Democrat's poor track record in the state is directly linked to voter fatigue.

To fight the fatigue, he says parties will try to keep the upcoming election at the top of voter's minds.

RELATED: Bibb County political parties set eyes on Senate races

So expect more commercials and text messages in the coming days.

• November 18: Earliest day for a registrar to mail an absentee ballot for the general election runoff
• December 7: Voter registration deadline to vote in the federal runoff election
• December 14: Advanced in-person or early voting begins for the general election runoff for federal offices
• January 5, 2021: Federal runoff election day