Sheriff's race, several others to be decided Tuesday

By Angie Thompson/senior reporter

TIFTON — Election officials and poll workers were working hard Monday preparing each of 12 voting precincts for today’s primary election. Several local seats will be decided after today’s vote because the candidates are of the same party.

According to Jean Edwards, Tift County’s election supervisor, approximately 19,000 Tift County citizens are eligible to vote today. Twelve hundred voters took advantage of several days of advance voting available last week. Edwards reminded voters to bring a picture identification with them to the polls. Also, if for some reason a person’s name can’t be found on the list provided at the precinct, that person can vote provisionally and election officials will have two days to verify the voter’s status and count or not count the vote.

The race for Tift County Sheriff will be decided today as incumbent Gary Vowell and challenger Raleigh “Chip” Coarsey are both registered Republicans. Republican Chief Magistrate incumbent Douglas B. “Doug” Jones and Clay Yelverton are also the only candidates running for that post. Either Liz Carson Keith (Republican, incumbent) or her challenger, Kim Rutland, also a Republican, will be chosen to fill the post of Tift County Board of Education representative for District 3.

In the race for Tift County Commission District 2, Democratic incumbent Frankie L. Mathis faces his Democratic challenger Melissa H. Chevers for that post. The race for public service commissioner will also be decided when the votes are counted for Republicans Rick Collum and incumbent H. Doug Everett.

Tift County’s polling site locations include: Tifton Northeast (in the old school gym at the corner of Fourth Street and Chesnutt Avenue); Brighton (869 Harold Tyson Road at its intersection with Old Ocilla Road); Brookfield (Brookfield Volunteer Fire Station, 983 Lower Brookfield Road); Chula (3372 U.S. Highway 41 N., white block building beside the fire station); Docia (14 Docia Road across from Excelsior Store on Ty Ty-Omega Road); Eldorado (4145 U.S. Highway 41 S. in the Eldorado Fire Station); Omega (Omega Club House, 5471 Alabama Drive off U.S. Highway 319 S.); Ty Ty (Ty Ty City Hall, 141 Elman St., Ty Ty, off U.S. Highway 82 W.); Tifton Northeast (Leroy Rogers Center, 315 W. Second St.); Tifton South (Neighborhood Service Center, 2731 S. Central Ave.); Mott-Litman Gym (2425 Emerson O. Bynes Ave.); and Tifton Lodge (1400 Kennedy Road).

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