You must be registered to vote by July 10 to be eligible to cast a ballot in the Aug. 8 Democratic or Republican primary election, and absentee voting gets underway.
New voters can register in person at the circuit clerk’s office or municipal clerk’s office, or by mail-in registration application filed at least 30 days prior to the date of the election.
The general election is set for Nov. 7. To be eligible to vote in that election, registration must be completed and submitted by Oct. 10.
For complete details, visit the voter registration information page on the secretary of state's website.
Absentee voting in person at the circuit clerk's office begins next week. The clerk's offices in Charleston and Sumner are open from 8 a.m. until noon, and 1-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
On the two Saturdays preceding the Aug. 8 primaries — Saturday, July 29, and Saturday, Aug. 5 — circuit clerk's offices around the state are required to be open to facilitate in-person absentee voting. Aug. 5 is the deadline to vote in-person by absentee ballot.
It is also time for mail-in absentee voting to get underway. Mail-in absentee ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day, Aug. 8, and received in the circuit clerk's office no later than Aug. 15.
For more information about absentee voting in Tallahatchie County, contact the circuit clerk's office in Charleston at 662-647-8758 or in Sumner at 662-375-8515.
Anyone may vote absentee who meets any of the following qualifications:
» Any qualified elector who is a bona fide student, teacher or administrator at any college, university, junior college, high, junior high, or elementary grade school whose studies or employment at such institution necessitates his or her absence from the county of his or her voting residence on the date of any primary, general or special election, or the spouse and dependents of that student, teacher or administrator if such spouse or dependent(s) maintain a common domicile, outside of the county of his or her voting residence, with such student, teacher or administrator.
» Any qualified elector who is required to be away from his or her place of residence on any election day due to his or her employment as an employee of a member of the Mississippi congressional delegation and the spouse and dependents of such person if he or she shall be residing with such absentee voter away from the county of the spouse's voting residence.
» Any qualified elector who is away from his or her county of residence on election day for any reason.
» Any person who has a temporary or permanent physical disability and who, because of such disability, is unable to vote in person without substantial hardship to himself, herself or others, or whose attendance at the voting place could reasonably cause danger to himself, herself or others.
» The parent, spouse or dependent of a person with a temporary or permanent physical disability who is hospitalized outside of his or her county of residence or more than fifty (50) miles distant from his or her residence, if the parent, spouse or dependent will be with such person on election day.
» Any person who is sixty-five (65) years of age or older.
» Any member of the Mississippi congressional delegation absent from Mississippi on election day, and the spouse and dependents of such member of the congressional delegation.
» Any qualified elector who will be unable to vote in person because he or she is required to be at work on election day during the times at which the polls will be open.
For more information about absentee voting, visit the absentee voting information page on the secretary of state's website.
A large slate of state, state district, county, county district and other races will appear on Aug. 8 ballots in Tallahatchie County.
