Early voting for the Presidential preference primary and Carter County Republican primary elections begins on Wednesday.
For this election, voters will cast their ballots in either the Republican or Democratic primary elections.
On the national level voters will choose their preference for their party’s nomination for president and will also select a number of delegates to the national party conventions.
At the local level, county voters will cast ballots for the Assessor of Property and a Circuit Court Judge position. Voters in the county’s First and Third Districts will also select a candidate to fill unexpired terms of office to the Carter County Commission for two former commissioners who resigned last year.
All of the local candidates who qualified for the election selected to run in the Republican primary. No candidates for the local offices filed paperwork to appear on the Democrat primary election.
Carter County Administrator of Elections Tracy Harris said early voting begins Wednesday, Feb. 10, and will run through Tuesday, Feb. 23. Voting hours are 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. until Noon on Saturdays. While Feb. 15 is President’s Day, which is a federal holiday, early voting will still be held that day even though county government offices will be closed. Election Day is March 1, and the polls will be open on that day from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Harris wants to remind voters that early voting will be held at the Election Commission’s new office at 116 Holston Avenue and not at the Carter County Courthouse. The Election Commission posted signs at the courthouse providing the address and location of their office to voters who may show up at the wrong building by accident.
“We’ve gotten a lot of calls asking where early voting is going to be,” Harris said.
Because the Presidential primary will be joined by a county primary on the ballot, Harris said she expects to see a high voter turnout, particularly during early voting.
“I think there will be more people voting this time than there were during the last Presidential primary,” she said.
During the 2012 Presidential primary, Harris said a total of 6,522 people voted with nearly one-third of them — 2,037 in total — casting their ballots during early voting.
With an anticipated high voter turnout, Harris said voters should make sure they allow plenty of time as there may be lines during early voting and on Election Day.
Because of the additional space in the new Election Commission office, Harris said her staff will be able to set up additional voting machines to accommodate the expected turnout.
“We’ll have 10 machines up for early voting,” she said. “That’s two more than normal.”
For more information on early voting, please contact the Carter County Election Commission at 423-542-1822. A sample ballot may be viewed on the Election Commission’s website at www.cartercountytn.gov/government/departments/election.html.