Early voting has begun Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at three locations in Fayette County: the Peachtree City Library, Tyrone Town Hall and the county’s elections office in downtown Fayetteville.
Polls will also be open this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. only at the elections office in Fayetteville, which meets a federal requirement to offer Saturday voting during a federal election.
Because it is a primary, voters will have to choose a Democratic or Republican ballot, as they cannot cast votes for both parties. The winners, of course, will face off in the November general election, in which voters may choose to vote for either party.
The Republican ballot has two contested local races: the Post 4 slot on the BoE between Diane Basham, Mindy Fredrikson, John Kimbell and Jane Owens; and the Post 3 race for the county commission between former Peachtree City mayors Steve Brown, Harold Logsdon and Don Haddix.
There are no local races up for grabs on the Democratic ticket.
Board of Education candidates Leonard Presberg (Post 5) and Ogechi Oparah (Post 4) are unopposed along with county commission Post 5 candidate Pota Coston.
The court-ordered advent of district voting also adds a new wrinkle to voting this year, as residents will no longer be able to vote in each open race on the county commission and board of education. Instead, residents may only vote for the post corresponding to the geographic district they live in.
In this year’s election that means that voters in districts 1 and 2 will not be able to vote on any candidates seeking election to the county commission or the board of education.
The district voting ruling, resulting from the lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is being appealed to the 11th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. However, the primary and general elections this year are being conducted under the new district voting rules.
