Early voting underway for 2018 election
The chance to vote early and avoid potential lines on Election Day in Polk County began on Monday and continues through November 3 ahead of the 2018 midterms.
Locally, votes on two local County Commission seats and whether to extend the Special Purpose, Local Option Sales Tax to 2026 when it the current fund concludes a year and a half from now are some of the main issues facing Polk County on the ballot.
District 2 Commissioner and this year’s chair Jennifer Hulsey seeks a second term in representing the area on the Republican ticket, while longtime candidate Ricky Clark seeks Democratic support in Polk County.
In a special election for the District 3 rate, a trio of candidates are up on the ballot this year for the seat that will fill the rest of the time held currently by Commissioner Hal Floyd, who is running unopposed in the seat being left open when Marshelle Thaxton’s term expires on December 31.
Jeri Purdy, Ray Carter and Larry Reynolds are all seeking the seat that will be back up for a vote in 2020.
Other races locally feature candidates who are unopposed on the ballot. Those include School Board seats that will be retained by District 2 board member and vice chair Bernard Morgan and current chair and District 7 board member Tommy Sanders. Also running unopposed on the midterm ballot are candidates who won in primaries, Britt Madden Jr. in District 1 and Vicki Mayes in District 4.
As mentioned before, Floyd is seeking the District 3 seat unopposed for the county commission, and Gary Martin defeated Commissioner Jose Iglesias to take on the District 1 seat in December once last year’s appointment of Iglesias runs out.
Polk’s pair of state seats are also being sought without opposition in 2018. State Sen. Bill Heath will continue to represent the 31st district made up of Polk, Haralson and parts of Paulding Counties. State Rep. Trey Kelley also will get a new term in office without any challenger for the 16th district house seat.
In statewide elections on the ballot this year, the top level race remains that for Governor as the term of Nathan Deal comes to a close in December. Georgia’s Secretary of State Brian Kemp represents the Republicans on the ballot, while Democrat and former State Rep. Stacey Abrams seeks to become the first black female governor of a state in the nation in 2018. They also share the ballot with Libertarian Ted Metz.
Georgians will also choose between Democrat Sarah Riggs Amico and Republican Geoff Duncan for Lieutenant Governor. Replacing Kemp at as Secretary of State will be decided between GOP candidate Brad Raffensperger, Democrat John Barrow and Libertarian Smythe Duval.
Current Attorney General Chris Carr seeks to keep his job in the office as a Republican on the ticket, though he faces a challenge from Democrat Charlie Bailey for the job.
In the Commissioner of Agriculture race, incumbent Gary Black seeks to retain the position for the GOP over his Democratic challenger Fred Swann. The Insurance Commissioner vote is between three candidates this year, with Republican Jim Beck, Democrat Janice Laws and Libertarian Donnie Foster on the ballot.
The State School Superintendent race features incumbent Richard Woods representing the GOP again, versus Democrat Otha E. Thornton Jr. Georgians are also voting on the Commissioner of Labor between incumbent Mark Butler for Republicans, and Richard Keatley for the Democratic ticket.
Two races are underway on the Public Service Commission, with a pair of incumbents facing a pair of challengers in the race. The GOP incumbent Chuck Eaton faces Democrat Lindy Miller and Libertarian Ryan Graham for the position on the commission, while incumbent Republican Tricia Pridemore seeks to defend the seat agains democrat Dawn A. Randolph and Libertarian John Turpish.
Georgia’s 14th district congressional race comes down to incumbent Tom Graves, and democrat Steven Lamar Foster.
Several amendments are also on this year’s ballot as well. That includes Amendment 1 to create an outdoor stewardship trust fund, creation of statewide business courts, providing rights for victims of a crime in the judicial process, changes to how timber tax classifications and grants work, homestead exemptions for certain municipal corporations, tax exemptions for homes for the mentally disabled, and for the fair allocation of sales tax proceeds to county and city school districts.
The voter registration deadline has come and passed by for the 2018 midterms, with the final day in Georgia to get in paperwork was last Tuesday, Oct. 9.
Early voting got underway on Monday in Cedartown at the Board of Elections office at 144 West Ave. This location will be open on weekdays and one Saturday during the final weeks leading up to the election. Regular hours for the Cedartown office are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday voting will take place on Oct. 27 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and there will be extended early voting hours on Oct. 23 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Oct. 25 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Board of Elections Office in Cedartown, and the Nathan Dean Community Center in Rockmart.
Those who need more information about early voting, registration status and more can visit sos. ga.gov/myvoterpage, or call the Board of Elections at 770-749-2103 to request a paper absentee ballot be sent to the home.
All absentee ballots sent in by paper must be returned before the end of the early voting period in at the beginning of November.