Early Voting for Primary Begins This Tuesday at Veterans Building

RISON - Early voting for the 2026 primary election begins this Tuesday, Feb. 17, at the Hall-Morgan Veterans Building, 404 Sycamore Street in Rison across from the courthouse.Early voting will be available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21, and Saturday, Feb. 28. The final day for early voting will be Monday, March 2.The primary election will be held on Tuesday, March 3. Polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on election day at polling sites across the county.John Appleget, chairman of the Cleveland County Election Commission, wanted to remind voters that the Republican primary is a “closed” election, which means only those voters who are registered as Republicans or “optional” can vote in the Republican primary. Therefore, if someone is registered as a Democrat, he said they will have to change their voter registration to Republican or optional to vote in the Republican primary.All locally contested races in Cleveland County will be decided in the Republican primary, including the race for county judge, sheriff, Kingsland mayor and Niven township constable. The winner of those primary races will run uncontested in the November election. Appleget said those voters who did not check any party affiliation on their voter application is automatically classified as “optional.”Voters can still change their voter affiliation up to even up to  election day, Appleget said. To change their party affiliation, he said they will need to fill out a new voter application card and check either Republican or “optional” on the card. He said they plan to have some voter application cards available at the polls.With four candidates running for county judge and three for sheriff, one candidate must receive more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the two candidates receiving the most votes will face off in a ...