Early voting starts next week for 14th District House Special Election

Georgia’s 14th District is up for grabs as voting is about to get underway for the Special Election to fill the remaining time left open by former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The 22 candidates running in the race from across the district will be on the ballot to choose from starting this coming Monday, February 16, when early voting opens across the district that includes Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Walker, Whitfield, Floyd, Polk, Paulding and portions of metro Atlanta areas.

Early voting locally opens at the Cedartown Precinct at the Goodyear Civic Center at 108 Prior St., Cedartown, and the Rockmart precinct at 605 Goodyear Ave., Rockmart in the Nathan Dean (or Rockmart) Community Center.

Voters can visit either precinct from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, and Saturday voting will only be held in Cedartown from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Feb. 21 and Feb. 28. Early voting will end on Friday, March 7.

Elections Director Noah Beck noted that Rockmart’s precinct had during past early voting Saturday’s saw low weekend turnout, and didn’t wish to displace events already on the schedule for the Community Center so limited Saturday voting to just a single location in Cedartown for this round of voting.

He said otherwise his department is mostly ready to go for the special election.

“We are speedily working toward ensuring that everything is ready to go for the start of early voting next week, and if local residents have any questions about their voter registration status or need help determining which polling location to visit, they can call our office for more information,” Beck said.

Voter registration for the special election ends today at 5 p.m. for those who wish to submit paperwork to be able to take part in the decision on who will serve out the remainder of the year for the 14th District House seat.

Candidates include:

• Star Black
• Reagan Box
• Beau Brown
• James Marty Brown
• Jared Craig
• Eric Cunningham
• Jim Davis
• Clayton Fuller
• Tom Gray
• Shawn Harris
• Larry Hilley
• Jonathan Hobbs
• Christian Hurd
• Trey Kelly
• Nicky Lama
• Colton Moore
• Rob “Rush” Ruszkowski
• Brian Stover
• Meghan Strickland
• Jim Tully
• Jennifer Turnipseed
• Andrew Underwood

The candidate with 50% + 1 vote wins the race, but with such a large field of contenders for the seat it will probably require a run-off to be held in April.

If that is the outcome, the top two candidates with the highest percentage of votes from across the district will move onto the run-off vote on April 7.

Need information about your registration status, where to vote and more? Call the Polk County Board of Elections at 770-749-2103.