October 17, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
Early voting begins Wednesday, October 19 and runs through November 3 for the State and Federal November 8 elections.
Early voting will be at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Smithville and for one day at the Fairgrounds in Alexandria.
Times for early voting are as follows: Mondays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Wednesdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Thursdays 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. until Noon.
The early voting date at the Fairgrounds is Thursday, Oct. 27 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m..
The hours for voting at the 12 precincts on Election Day, November 8th are 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Voters will be making their selections for Governor, Congressman and State Representative and voters in the 4th district only will have a candidate for Constable to fill an unexpired term. In addition, voters will be making their choices on four constitutional amendments.
Candidates for Governor are: Republican incumbent Bill Lee, Democratic nominee Jason Brantley Martin and Independents Constance M. Every, John Gentry, Basil Marceaux, Charles Van Morgan, Alfred O’Neil, Deborah Rouse, Michael E. Scantland and Rick Tyler.
Candidates for U.S House of Representatives District 6 are Republican incumbent John Rose and Democratic challenger Randal Cooper.
Candidates for Tennessee House of Representatives District 40 are Republican Michael Hale and Democrat Tom Cook, both from DeKalb County.
The lone candidate for Constable in the 4th District is Republican Lane Ball.
The amendments deal with issues ranging from employment rights to a process for the temporary exercise of power of the governor to forever prohibiting slavery to deleting a section which prohibits ministers from holding a seat in the legislature.
In general terms, Constitutional Amendment #1 would add a new section to article XI to make it illegal for any person, corporation, association or the State of Tennessee or its political subdivisions to deny or attempt to deny employment to any person because of the person’s membership in, affiliation with, resignation from, or refusal to join or affiliate with any labor union or employee organization.
Constitutional Amendment #2 would add to Article III, Section 12 of the current constitution a process for the temporary exercise of powers and duties of the governor by the Speaker of the Senate (or the Speaker of the House if there is no Speaker of the Senate in office) when the governor is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Constitutional Amendment #3 would change the language in article I, section 33 of the current constitution with “slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime.”
Constitutional Amendment #4 simply deletes article IX, section I of the current constitution which prohibits ministers of the gospel and priests of any denomination from holding a seat in either House of the legislature.
“Voters should note that the Amendments will be placed on the ballot directly after the Governor’s race,” Stanley said. “Amendments are presented as yes or no questions. A “yes” vote is a vote to amend the Constitution and adopt the proposed language in the amendment. A “no” vote is a vote to NOT amend the constitution and keep the current language in the Constitution unchanged,” he added.
For any amendment to pass, it must get more “yes” votes than “no” votes; and the number of “yes” votes must be a majority of the total votes in the gubernatorial election.
The hours for voting at the 12 precincts on Election Day, November 8, are 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.