Early voting concludes Saturday, Feb. 28
By Becky Long
Publisher
Soon the stage will be set for the general election in November. Candidates who will be on the fall ballot will be determined after the primaries on Tuesday, March 3.
In the meantime early voting winds down Saturday.
The Clay County Elections Board is the site for early voting which is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The BOE office is located at 75 Riverside Circle Suite 3, Hayesville.
The numbers are growing in early voting. As of Wednesday, 950 people had voted early. Almost 50 percent of those were made by registered Republicans, nearly 37 percent were unaffiliated and 13.7 percent were Democrats.
By party ballot affiliation, those requested were 747 Republican ballots; 203 voted a Democratic ballot, according to the Vote Tracker, a project of the John Locke Foundation.
In the 2022 primary election, 1,480 people voted early and another 32 voted by mail.
Several local races have multiple contenders including the county commission where three seats are up. None of the incumbents on the board are seeking re-election.
There are eight candidates on the primary ballot, but two of them dropped out of the race, Matt Denham and Bonnye Williams.
The other six on the Republican ballot are Tighe White, Robert Seibert, Jason A. Rickett, Christian Reagan, Dwight S. McClure, Sr. and Andy James.
Sandy Zimmerman has qualified to run for a seat on the county commission as an unaffiliated candidate. She will not be on the primary ballot, but on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
She submitted the 417 necessary signatures on her petition and they have been certified by the Board of Elections, according to Director Rebecca Hall.
Another potential unaffiliated candidate who has not submitted his petition to date is Ronnie Byers.
In November, the lone Democrat commissioner candidate, Keyla Youngblood Stillwell will be on the ballot.
In the school board race on the Republican ticket, there are three seats available.
Incumbent Jason Shook is seeking re-election. The other contenders are Kevin Crawford, Reba Beck, Brett Woody and Keith Parker.
Marcelline “Marcy” Fuerch and Jessica McClure are working on their petitions to run on the November ballot as unaffiliated candidates for school board.
Petitions have to be turned in by noon on March 3.
In the sheriff’s race incumbent Mark Buchanan is seeking re-election. Former sheriff, Joe Shook is trying to unseat him. Both candidates will be on the Republican ballot.
On the day of the primary election, voters will not go to the Board of Elections office. They will vote at their precincts which will be open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
“If you need to know where your precinct is please give us a call at 389-6812,” said Hall.