With new candidates, new districts and, in some cases, a new election date, Athens voters can be forgiven if they're a bit confused about Tuesday's primaries. So Flagpole presents this handy-dandy guide—culled from interviews, articles, candidate forums and the candidates' websites—to help readers make decisions in the voting booth. Visit Flagpole.com for more info, including maps of the redrawn districts.

And be sure to vote. In Georgia's open primaries, voters can pull either party's ballot regardless of their own party affiliation. The primaries are the main event for most of these races because only one party is fielding candidates or the district is skewed to one side of the political spectrum. Athens-Clarke Commission races will be decided Tuesday, too, because of a new state law moving up nonpartisan elections from November to the summer.

House District 117

The marquee race in Athens this year is state Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, versus Republican challenger Regina Quick, a lawyer specializing in property taxes and family issues. Like a couple of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, just mash the button and watch them go at it.

There are no Democrats in the race, so local liberals, angry about McKillip leaving the party just weeks after colleagues elected him to a leadership post in 2010, are lining up behind Quick, even though she is, on some issues, further to the right. That support is perhaps boosting her chances of winning in Clarke County, but it's given her headaches in other, more conservative parts of the newly redrawn district.

When he's not attacking Quick as a closet liberal, McKillip is touting his three terms of experience under the Gold Dome serving on the Appropriations Committee, arguing that he's better positioned to bring home the bacon to Athens. Quick labels McKillip an unreliable opportunist and says she'll vote her conscience, even bucking party leadership when necessary. She has criticized a tax reform bill McKillip supported as a sales tax hike on car buyers, while McKillip defends it because it gets rid of the "birthday tax" tag fee. Both are anti-abortion, but they disagree on McKillip's controversial bill cutting back the time when women can end pregnancies.

McKillip has skipped two of three candidate forums in Athens, opting instead to use his almost $250,000 war chest to bombard voters with negative mailers about Quick.

House District 118

In another contentious race where the candidates have been at each others' throats, 2010 mayoral candidate and Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Spencer Frye is challenging state Rep. Keith Heard, D-Athens.

Frye dug up dozens of Heard's votes on issues ranging from charter schools to voter ID to raising Georgia Power rates and accused him of voting with the GOP. That's true to an extent, but Heard's defense is that other Democrats voted for those bills, too. Heard says Frye doesn't understand the legislative process, while Frye says the 10-term incumbent is out of touch.

Speaking of Atlanta, Heard's residency has come into question as well. His family owns homes in both Clarke and Fayette counties, leading to questions about where he actually lives. In response, Heard has emphasized his record of community service. Unlike Frye, he's also an Athens native. But unlike Heard, Frye sends his children to local schools.

Wait—there's more! Two young Republicans are also running for the right to be knocked silly by the Democratic nominee in the left-leaning district. Carter Kessler is a libertarian Ron Paul acolyte who believes in a severely limited government, the gold standard, unlimited gun rights, getting rid of the Federal Reserve, lifting zoning restrictions and decriminalizing drugs. He also has two DUI convictions on his record. Chris Perlera is a banker who serves on the boards of the Sandy Creek Nature Center and Athens Latino Center for Education and Services. He wants to boost funding for education and cap the amount of money lobbyists can spend on meals, trips and gifts for lawmakers.

Senate District 47

State Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, represents the eastern half of Clarke County. Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, who represents the western half, is unopposed.

Ginn, first elected in 2010, has been a leading advocate for cracking down on illegal immigration, even causing a stir when he confronted a local high school student about her immigration status at a community forum on the issue. Having lost his son in an accident, he expressed qualms about a version of McKillip's abortion bill that would have forced women to carry a fetus to term even when it had died or couldn't survive outside the womb, although he voted for the final bill when that provision was removed. The former city and county manager considers himself an advocate for local control and tried but failed to get locally drawn commission district maps passed earlier this year.

Ginn's opponent is Barrow County Commission Chairman Danny Yearwood. The used-car salesman presided over stark budget cuts in Barrow County driven by the recession and crashing property values. He often clashed with other commissioners over whether the county should hire a professional manager—he said no—and the budget. Yearwood is running to Ginn's right, criticizing him for supporting a transportation sales tax referendum and wavering on the abortion bill.

Commission District 4

Lawyer David Ellison, who serves on the county's Hearings Board, and Allison Wright, a medical illustrator and Clarke County Board of Education member who says she "gets Athens," are the choices to replace Commissioner Alice Kinman in this Five Points-centric district. Kinman has endorsed Wright.

Ellison has criticized the school board's response to a state audit and grand jury investigation into the school district's budget that found accounting problems and money misplaced. Wright says the board pushed to fix the problems, and they were, but Ellison says she didn't do enough, and he would provide more oversight.

Parking in Five Points is another big issue. Ellison clerked for the judge who ruled against Athens-Clarke County in a lawsuit that put Lumpkin Street parking in private hands, at least for now, leading to a parking war of attrition among neighborhood businesses. Both candidates say they would broker deals among businesses so that one could use another's lot while it was closed. Ellison also raised the possibility of combining small lots behind businesses or a small parking deck funded by a public-private partnership or a special tax district.

Like Kinman, Wright is focused on transportation issues. She says she would push to expand Athens Transit bus service—starting loops around local hospitals and shuttles down Baxter Street and to Five Points—and finish the North Oconee River Greenway.

Commission District 6

Longtime Athens-Clarke Planning Commissioner Jerry NeSmith, a founder of the Athens Farmers Market, faces political newcomer Ron Winders, a social-worker-turned-business-consultant, in this race to replace Ed Robinson in the westside seat. The district's former commissioner, Carl Jordan, has endorsed NeSmith. (See the letters page for deets.)

Both candidates are worried about a planned outdoor mall in Oconee County siphoning off businesses from Atlanta Highway, an issue that prompted Mayor Nancy Denson to appoint a committee to study ways to improve the corridor. They want to streamline the process of opening a business and tweak laws like one requiring sidewalks in front of new developments, which they say makes sense intown but not in suburban commercial areas.

Where they differ is on the role of the planning commission, which advises the Athens-Clarke Commission on zoning decisions. Winders says they take too long to make decisions, holding up projects and costing developers money. He wants to revamp the board or even do away with it, which NeSmith says is ludicrous because it puts zoning decisions in the hands of politicians. NeSmith also denies throwing up roadblocks in front of developments; planners work with applicants to get the designs right, and at its most recent meeting, the planning commission moved on 10 of 11 items, he says.

9th Congressional District

Three Republicans—Gainesville pundit Martha Zoller, former state Rep. Doug Collins of Gainesville and White County educator Roger Fitzpatrick—are running for this new seat, created last year when Georgia added enough people for another congressional district.

Collins and Zoller have spent the past few months slinging mud at each other about their past records. Zoller is criticizing Collins' votes in support of T-SPLOST, which he now opposes, and a hospital "bed tax" that supporters claimed was really a long-term tax cut for wealthy retirees and others. Collins, meanwhile, combed through thousands of Zoller's columns and on-air comments to find instances when she seemed to support gay marriage, abortion or President Obama.

They sound, though, as if they'd vote about the same way moving forward, with the GOP's tea party faction. The choice comes down to whether you want an outsider (Zoller) or an establishment guy with experience in government (Collins). Fitzpatrick has no money, no campaign infrastructure and no chance of winning.

10th Congressional District

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun is running against fellow Republican Stephen Simpson, a retired Army officer who's served stints in military intelligence, on Capitol Hill and as a contractor in the private sector.

Since barely squeezing into office in a 2007 special election, Broun has annihilated all his political foes, but Simpson might stand a puncher's chance since more than half the district has changed. Rather than running from Augusta through Athens north to the state line, it now heads west into Gwinnett County and south to Simpson's hometown of Milledgeville.

Simpson's platform is a familiar one: Broun is ineffective, more interested in getting on Fox News and impressing the black-helicopter crowd than legislating. After all, he didn't even wait until President Obama was sworn in to break Godwin's Law. Broun is clearly sensitive to this argument, since his press office has made a big deal out of a couple minor spending amendments he got passed and a recent Politico article detailing his quest to stop the steamroller of socialism.

Campaign money is another issue—Simpson doesn't have much, and Broun's been accused of using it to line his pockets. Broun loaned his first two campaigns $300,000, claiming them as personal loans in FEC filings and later paying himself $30,000 in interest. When questioned, he said he used the money to pay interest on a bank loan. The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Broun blamed an inexperienced staffer and said he's submitted documentation to the FEC, but he won't release it to the public, and the agency won't rule until after the election.

T-SPLOST

A proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation would raise $1 billion and pay for 70 road, transit, airport and bike projects in the 12-county Northeast Georgia region, as well as 11 regions around the state. For more info about T-SPLOST, see last week's Flagpole or go to Flagpole.com.

Sunday Sales

Whether you're a drunk, a teetotaler or just believe in freedom, this one is probably a no-brainer. Should Athens grocery, convenience and package stores be allowed to sell wine, beer and liquor from 12:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Sundays? The legislature started allowing local communities to vote on ending the long-standing blue law in 2011, and it's already passed in dozens of cities and counties. We're a bit behind the curve because Athens-Clarke County had only a low-turnout education sales tax on the ballot in 2011. Officials wanted to wait until turnout would be higher and avoid footing the bill for a special election, but they thought November was too far away.

Ballot Questions

Both the Republican and Democratic ballots include several nonbinding questions put there by party officials to gauge voters' opinions. Republicans are asking about outlawing abortion, legalizing casino gambling, giving weapons permits to young military personnel and requiring voters to register their party affiliation. Democrats want to know if the state should be able to overrule local school boards on charter schools, sales taxes on Georgia-made goods should be cut and individuals should get tax credits for home energy use. Both parties are floating a cap on lobbyists' gifts to lawmakers.