Prepare For Longer Voting Times In August

The qualifying period for candidates for elected offices in Newport and Parrottsville began on Monday. That election will be in November. However another election for county offices and the primary for state and federal is coming up on August 4th. The Cocke County Election Commmission is advising voters that they need to be prepared for voting to take a little longer than normal in August. Administer of Elections Josh Blanchard says the voting machine ballot will be 13 pages long for most voters. The main reason for a lengthy ballot is there are seven (7) pages of Judicial Retention Questions at the end of the ballot. Most voters will get a ballot that shows two pages of the State Primary, four pages of County General Election, and seven pages of State Judicial Retention Questions at the end. That lengthy ballot will take you a little more time than normal to vote.

If you are not registered to vote in the August 4th election, your time is running out to do so. Voter registration ends on July 5th. Early voting for the August 4th election begins in July 15th.