Election day comes for municipalities

Vote tracking begins Tuesday night online at Polkstandardjournal.com

For those subscribers and readers getting the paper on Tuesday, it is Election Day in Polk County for the cities of Aragon, Cedartown and Rockmart. Today’s the day that council members are decided, a special election for a commission seat and who will take over for Mayor Steve Miller.

Voters in the cities will have from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to cast ballots if they haven’t already in single races within each city, with other candidates on the ballot running without opposition within the cities as well.

Election coverage for the three races across the cities will begin this morning on Polkstandardjournal.com and continue with periodic updates throughout the day before tallies begin coming in this evening. Readers who get the paper on Wednesdays can find a full

result the following morning.

Those who want to take part in city elections can report to three precincts — at the Bert Wood Youth and Athletic Center’s Log Cabin in Cedartown on Lynton Drive.

Elections Director Lee Ann George said the decision to use the Log Cabin instead of the traditional location in the gymnasium was to keep the amount of space needed for the election to a minimum.

The Aragon Community Center across the street from Aragon Baptist Church on Elm Street will serve as the precinct for the city once again. Rockmart voters are heading to the Nathan Dean Community Center at 605 Goodyear Ave. to vote.

Early voting returns remained under 200 people by press time on Friday afternoon, Nov. 1 when the three-week period came to a close that began on October 15.

Voters are heading to the polls in Aragon to determine who will take up two of the four council seats in a four-way race in municipal elections. In the race is Council Member and local business owner Judd Fee seeking a new term in office this year, longtime Aragon resident and former council member from years past Buddy Tanner, former Aragon City employee and volunteer firefighter Mike Long Jr., and Aragon resident Gary Shindelbower.

In Rockmart, the decision is being made to determine who replaces Mayor Steve Miller after he concludes two terms in office and steps down as he promised to do when he first ran for the seat.

Former council member and businessman Sherman Ross is running for the seat against Mark Lumpkin, a two-plus decade veteran of the Polk School District as an educator and in recent years Central Office administrator, and co-owner of WZOT Radio.

In Cedartown, the special election to determine who fills the rest of the term previously held by Commissioner Jordan Hubbard is between Sam Branch and Randell Brazier.

Branch, a native of Cedartown who works at Suntrust Bank and Gammage Funeral Home, announced his intentions to run ahead of qualifying in past weeks. He also is a member of the Cedartown Civic Arts Commission, and is a member of the Exchange Club.

Brazier, former Code Enforcement Officer with the Polk County Police Department after a long career in public safety, seeks to extend his involvement in helping the community by seeking the seat as well.