With the exception of one, Georgia has ranked 49th or 50th in voter turnout in every presidential election since 1960, said Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. The exception was in 1964, when Georgia went for Republican Barry Goldwater and ranked 46th. ``It's just apathy. People aren't interested,'' said Sam Gibson, one of six newly appointed voter education coordinators in Secretary of State Cathy Cox's office who have been working to increase interest in the 2004 election. ``People say, 'Why vote? My vote doesn't count. It really doesn't matter.'''

Not even Georgia native Jimmy Carter could raise voter interest. Carter carried the state in both the 1976 and 1980 presidential elections. But both times, Georgia's turnout ranked 49th.

In fact, it has been 128 years since Georgia's turnout in a presidential election topped 50 percent of voters, according to Doug Bachtel, a University of Georgia demographer. That surge in voter turnout came during the 1876 election between Democrat Samuel J. Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, in which Reconstruction was a major issue.

Southern states tend to have lower voter turnout, but Georgia's eligible voter turnout has usually ranked the lowest in the region, with the exception in recent elections of South Carolina. ``A lot of people feel that politics is not for them,'' said Meg Smothers, executive director of the Georgia League of Women Voters, which is getting voters to sign pledge cards promising to vote.

Sonya Bratcher, 35, of Locust Grove, a legal administrative assistant, said she does not register to vote because she does not want to get called for jury service.

That is a common complaint, but a spokeswoman for Cox said that not registering will not keep people off jury rolls.

Several efforts are under way to increase voter turnout.

One is early voting, which allows voting in the five-day period before an election. In last month's primaries, 76,361 voters cast early ballots. Cox's office has sent out voter education coordinators such as Gibson to encourage participation.

He had a receptive audience at a recent meeting with Henry County elementary school teachers. The teachers plan to take part in a mock presidential election in schools across the state in October.

Helen Butler, state director for Voices for Working Families, a nonpartisan group working on voter registration in the black community, said the teachers need to take the lessons they learn back to the classroom. ``It all gets down to education,'' Butler said. ``Our schools are not putting an emphasis on the political process.''

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)