Early voting to start Monday
By Donnie A. Lucas
In-person early voting for the March 1 primary elections starts Monday, Feb. 14 and continues until Friday, Feb. 25, with balloting taking place in the first floor lobby of the Shackelford County Courthouse.
Early voting hours are 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. each weekday including Fridays during the period. The Courthouse will be closed on Monday, Feb. 21 for Presidents Day.
“Voting will be available through the lunch hour this year,” election clerk Cheri Hawkins said.
Voters will be using new voting machines for this election that print out a paper ballot to be marked, with the voter then placing the marked ballot back into the machine to be electronically scanned and tallied.
“This new type of voting machine produces a paper ballot as a record, but the voter places it back into the machine to be scanned so that no one touches the ballot except the voter,” Hawkins said.
Voting clerks will be on hand during early voting and on Election Day to instruct voters about the new procedure.
The last day to submit an application for a ballot by mail is Friday, Feb. 18. The application must be received in the clerk’s office by a 4:00 p.m. deadline, not just postmarked by Feb. 18.
Mail ballots have a new requirement this year, making it mandatory for those voters to write in their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number on the inside flap of the return or carrier envelope before it is sealed and returned. There is also an area on the return envelope that the voter must sign.
“We just want to make sure that voters add an identifying number so their ballot is valid before they seal the carrier envelope, which is part of the new voting security laws this year,” Hawkins said.
The state legislature made several changes to voting procedures that went into effect this year to help assure accurate results.
Ballots by mail must be received back in the clerk’s office by election day on March 1.
County voters will be electing party candidates for several offices to be determine in the November General Election.
The lone contested race in Shackelford County is for County Judge, with John Viertel and Raleigh Breeden both running on the Republican Primary Ballot. Other incumbents who have filed for another four-year term on the Republican primary ballot are County/District Clerk Cheri Hawkins, County Treasurer Tammy Brown, Justice of the Peace James Breeden, Precinct 2 Commissioner Ace Reames, and Precinct 4 Commissioner Cody Jordan.
Rodney Casey will also be on the ballot running for Republican Party Chair.
No candidates filed for the Democratic Primary.
