Number Of Voters Increases Since First Of Year

Prospective candidates for elected office in Cannon County are not only getting signatures for their qualifying petitions, they are also increasing the number of voters.

Cannon County Administrator of Elections Stanley Dobson told the Cannon County Election Commission Monday night that nearly 150 new voters had been registered since the first of the year.

"A 73-year-old man that had never voted before came in to register today," Dobson said.

Dobson estimated the number of registered voters in the county is now over 8,000.

"Most of the candidates are getting voters registered, which is helping push up the numbers," he said.

Cannon Countians will go to the polls first this year on August 5 to vote in the General Election to choose persons to fill county offices up for election, including county executive and sheriff. They will vote again on Nov. 2 to select persons for state and national offices such as governor and U.S. Congress.

In other business discussed at Monday's meeting:

Dobson said his office would be visiting every voting precinct in the county before the August election to make sure they were ADA compliant.

"If we have to make a longer ramp or adjust doors so that they are easier to open, we are going to have to do it or else we will not be able to use that place for voting," he said.

Dobson reported that more felons have been purged from the list of registered voters, and that those who had voted in the past in violation of the law had been turned over to the district attorneys office for prosecution.

The board agreed to a set up a booth at the Children's Health Fair in April to allow persons to register to vote. The request came from REACH director Angela King.

The Election Commission meets the first Monday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the Adams Memorial Building on West Main. Meetings are open to the public.