Ballots set, early voting begins April 15
Filing by candidates has now been completed and the deadlines have passed for the May 5 Anderson County primary election and the Aug. 6 general election.
Early voting for the primary, which includes Republicans and Democrats seeking spots on the August ballot, will begin April 15 and end on April 30.
The biggest races in the primary are for the Republican nominations for county mayor and county sheriff, with two candidates running for each seat.
Deadline for independents running in the Aug. 6 election was last Tuesday (March 10), which followed the Feb. 19 deadline for candidates to file for the May 5 primary.
County general election candidates for offices that are non-partisan were required to file by March 10. Those positions include constables for Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4, who do not run on a party ticket.
This followed the Feb. 19 qualifying deadline for the May 5 Republican and Democratic primaries, and any candidates wanting to run as independents in the partisan positions – including the countywide positions such as mayor, sheriff and others, and the County Commission and county Board of Education – in the Aug. 6 general election.
County Mayor Terry Frank and Sheriff Russell Barker each has a single opponent in the GOP primary, but no one is running for either position in the Democratic primary, and there is an independent candidate only in the sheriff’s race – Colt Jennings, whose name will show up only on the Aug. 6 ballot.
Frank is opposed by Third District County Commissioner Joshua Anderson.
In the sheriff’s race, incumbent Russell Barker is opposed by David G. Davis in the Republican primary, and Colt Jennings is running as an independent in the Aug. 6 general election, after originally picking up a petition to run in the Republican primary.
Jennings will face the winner of the Republican primary in the Aug. 6 election.
Three candidates for County Commission who initially filed to run as Republicans changed their petitions to run instead as independents -- Tina Graham Targonski, for District 2, Tracy Wandell for District 1, and Kevin Craig, for District 7.
Candidates began filing for the various county positions when registration officially opened Dec. 22.
Frank was the first candidate for any county office to pick up and file a petition to run, seeking re-election to the post she has held since Sept. 1, 2012. The mayor serves a four-year term, but Frank was initially elected to fill out the two years remaining on the term of her predecessor, who resigned mid-term. She was re-elected to four-year terms in 2014, 2018 and 2022.
There are at least two candidates who qualified to run in all eight County Commission districts, for the two available seats in each district. Commissioners serve four-year terms.
Only the incumbents qualified to run for the other five countywide positions in the primary: Rex Lynch for Circuit Court clerk, Regina Copeland for county trustee, Jeff Cole for county clerk, Tim Shelton for register of deeds, and Gary Long for road superintendent.
Property Assessor John Alley’s position is not on this year’s ballot, nor are any of the judgeships.
Four of the eight county School Board district seats are up for election this year, for a four-year term.
The open seats are in School Board Districts,1, 2, 6 and 7.
Candidates have qualified for all four of the open seats, but three candidates – in Districts 1, 6 and 7 – are running as independents and will be only on the general election ballot on Aug. 6.
Districts 1 and 2 have one candidate each running unopposed in the Republican primary May 5.
Candidates who have qualified for County Commission in the primary (two seats open per district) are:
• District 1 – Chad McNabb (R), Raymond Neil Phillips (R).
• District 2 – Michael Y. Foster (R), Denise Palmer (R), Ronald C. Meredith Jr. (R).
• District 3 – Shannon Gray (R), Shelley Vandagriff (R), Rodney Archer (D).
• District 4 – Richard Constanzo (R), Tim Isbel (R), J. Shain Vowell (R), Amy Jones (R).
• District 5 – Martin “Marty” May (D), Robert McKamey (R), Jeff Pack (R), Karin Martin Partin (R), Barbara Vickery (R).
• District 6 -- Anthony Allen (R), filed), Aaron Wells (R); Ebony M. Capshaw (D), Derek Guy (D).
• District 7 – Sabra Beauchamp (R), Nathan Mullins (R), Sharon Bourgeois Capshaw (D), Steve Verran (D).
• District 8 – Jawrell Cook (R), Don A. Layton (R); Emily S. Wallace (R), Ashley Craven (D), Elizabeth “Liz” Henry (D).
School Board candidates who have qualified:
• District 1 – Ray Hagan (R), Jo Williams, independent (Aug. 6 ballot only).
• District 2 – Katherine Birkbeck (R).
• District 6 – Scott Gillenwaters, independent (Aug. 6 ballot only).
• District 7 – Don A. Bell, independent (Aug. 6 ballot only).
To get on the ballot for either the May 5 primary or the Aug. 6 general election, candidates must have submitted petitions with signatures of at least 25 registered voters, and for district seats, those voters must have been residents of the particular district, county Elections Administrator Mark Stephens said.
Early voting for the Aug. 6 general election will run from July 17-Aug. 1.
Deadline to register to vote in the May 5 primary is April 6.
The deadline to request absentee ballots is April 25.
