Polklogostandardwweb
Vote 2024

Early voting set to start next Tuesday for 2025 ballot

|

|

Time is flying as the year is getting shorter, and the chance to cast a ballot early begins next week as voting season returns following the Columbus Day holiday.

Election Day 2025 just under a month away from when voters will be heading to the polls for local-focused elections, with two cities able to call off their votes, but referendums remain on the ballot for the entire county and voters in the Cedartown City limits.

Voter registration ended on Monday, and now early voting is set to begin on Tuesday, October 14 (due to the Columbus Day holiday) and will continue through month’s end on Friday, October 31.

Election Director Noah Beck said his team is ready to roll up their sleeves and get this round of voting underway.

“We are excited for our 2025 election season to finish strong,” Beck said. “We are hoping for high turnout and look forward to serving the voters of Polk County during this election period.”

Both the Cedartown precinct at the Goodyear Civic Center on Prior Street and the Rockmart precinct at the Nathan Dean Community Center off Goodyear Avenue will be open starting next Tuesday on weekdays through the end of the month, and on Saturday October 18 and Saturday, October 25 at both locations. Times for all dates are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Applications to get an absentee ballot are open through Friday, October 24 at close of business.

Cedartown’s referendum question is the following: ““Shall the Act be approved which authorizes the City of Cedartown to exercise all redevelopment powers allowed under the ‘Redevelopment Powers law,’ as it may be amended from time to time?”

Myrick Multimedia Classifieds

Want to list your item for sale? Check out subscription options that include unlimited classified listings.

The redevelopment powers would provide the city a number of tools in order to attract commercial and industrial development within the city limits, but also allows for the city to create the Tax Allocation District being sought for the Publix development, and would include commercial businesses around the Highway 27 bypass intersection currently anchored by Walmart and Home Depot.

That ballot referendum is only available for voters who reside within the city limits of Cedartown.

Cedartown voters will still be able to vote for the City Commission seats up this year, but they will be single candidate votes since there were no challengers for the incumbents this year.

Countywide, voters are being asked to decide on a referendum requested by the Polk School District over allowing a senior exemption for property taxes collected for local schools.

The referendum reads as follows:

“Shall the Act be approved which provides a homestead exemption from Polk County school district ad valorem taxes for educational purposes in the amount of the greater of 50 percent or $60,000.00 of the assessed value of the homestead for residents of that school district who are at least 65 years of age, in the amount of the greater of 75 percent or $80,000.00 of the assessed value of the homestead for residents of that school district who are at least 70 years of age, and in the amount of the full assessed value of the homestead that does not exceed $500,000.00 appraised fair market value for residents of that school district who are at least 77 years of age, with an annual aggregate cap of $150 million in calendar year 2026?”

Myrick Multimedia Events

Waco City Council Meeting

January 5, 2026 at 7:00 PM

The Waco City Council holds their monthly meetings on the…

Want to list your event? Check out subscription options that include unlimited event listings.

The above referendum is joined by the Public Service Commission races that will determine seats on the statewide utility board. Primaries were held earlier this summer for those seats. It is an election redo for the state, who in 2022 had voted on these seats, but a lawsuit that eventually wound its way through state courts required that the election be redone.

The City of Rockmart and City of Aragon elections were called off due to no challengers stepping up on the ballot and incumbents will remain in their seats, or in the case of one Aragon Council seat a replacement will be sworn in come January 1, 2026.

The City of Braswell will be holding elections this year. Check back for coverage on that separate election getting underway next week as it becomes available.


VOTE 2025: PSC Commission primaries draw low turnout


Vote 2024

Results are still being tallied statewide, but Polk County once again was first across the finish line to report on the state level – though the turnout was low enough to make it little more than a light chore.

Locally, most of the races ended with a clear result for Public Service Commission primaries – a redo race that was supposed to happen three years ago, but was caught up in a court battle that ultimately played out with the conclusion of today’s races.

Based on results at 9:15 p.m., at least one of those races is heading into a runoff.

On the GOP side, Tim Echols took a clear victory locally for the PSC’s District 2 ballot spot, defeating Lee Muns in a 189-162 finish. Fitz Johnson was the only one to run for the District 3 GOP race, so he won without a real race to win with 290 votes cast for him locally.

The Democratic turnout for the two races was just 124 voters – and based on statewide results at least one of the seats is going to a runoff. Alicia Johnson was the only Democrat to run for the PSC District 2 race and took the 124 votes without opposition, but the District 3 race had three candidates vying for the spot on the November ballot.

Keisha Sean Waites took a narrow win with 49 votes locally, while Peter Hubbard took 38 and Robert Jones too 35.

All told, some 351 voters out of Polk County’s 27,295 registered voters took part in this round of balloting for primaries.


Myrick Multimedia Classifieds

Want to list your item for sale? Check out
subscription options
that include unlimited classified listings.

It made the Elections Office’s job tonight almost as easy as clicking a few buttons and being able to go home. It also meant that Elections Director Noah Beck left with a smile on his face, for yet again his office was the first to get results in statewide for the preliminary tally, and in the first group of five counties to finish their full election results for the night.

“We’re happy with our showing, it was a pretty clean night for us,” he said.

Since it was expected to be a low turnout election night, his office also took proactive steps to ensure that it didn’t cost too much to run. That included utilizing only a single early voting location for the three weeks prior to today’s primary, and keeping the staffing levels as low as possible.

“Polk County leaders made a lot of decisions to save our taxpayers money in an election that we had suspected was going to lead to a low turnout, and based on the numbers so far we made a lot of correct decisions to ensure that everything went smoothly and didn’t cost too much in our resources for elections this year,” Beck said.

Based on statewide results as of 9:15 p.m. (ish) the District 3 race for the Democratic primary is heading for a run-off, with Waites just a few percentage points away from getting to 50% + 1 vote needed to win outright.


Myrick Multimedia Events


Paulding County Board of Education Public Hearing

January 6, 2026 at 6:00 PM

The Paulding County Board of Education meets for a Public…

Want to list your event? Check out
subscription options
that include unlimited event listings.

If it does, County Elections officials will need to propose some additional cost-saving measures to ensure they don’t go over budget for the fiscal year. They’ll have new budget money for November’s election, but those might include more items as referendums are expected to be added to the off-year ballot before the summer is over.

Those wondering what the Public Service Commission does, they are a board who decide on utility rates that are allowed to be assessed by companies like Georgia Power for electrical service, but also oversee other areas that are considered public utilities. It began as the Railroad Commission, but as utilities expanded in 1922 they became the Public Service Commission and began regulating electric, natural gas, railroad, telephones and many other companies that utilize public rights of way to deliver services to customers across Georgia.

Check back for further updates as needed.

Polk Today
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.