Early voting begins Thursday

Beau Simmons, Stillwater NewsPress, Okla.
·3 min read

Jun. 20—Early voting for the June Primary begins Thursday in Payne County.

Registered voters can vote in-person absentee from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, as well as 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Payne County Election Board, 315 W. 6th Ave. Voting at the polls will be 7 a.m to 7 p.m. June 28.

Democrats in Payne County will see only the gubernatorial and the general U.S. Senate race on their ballots. Republicans did not face much opposition in local elections.

District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas, County Assessor James Cowan and District 1 County Commissioner Zach Cavett all filed unopposed. The District Judges went unopposed and Lee Denney, a former state representative, was unopposed after filing for County Treasurer after Carla Manning chose not to seek re-election.

District County Commissioner Rocky Blasier also chose not to seek re-election. The race to replace him begins and ends in the Republican primary with Kent Bradley, Rhonda Markum and Sheryl Arthur Lacy vying for the seat.

Two of the four local State Representative races will not have a general election.

—In District 32, Ryan Dixon is challenging incumbent Kevin Wallace. There are no Democrats, Independent of other party races in District 32

—In District 33, Brice Chaffin is challenging incumbent John Talley. There are no other party races.

—In District 34, Michael Baughman, DaRan Johnson and Andrew Muchmore are running for the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democrat Trish Ranson. Ranson drew no opponents for the primary.

—In District 35, Daniel Johnson is challenging Incumbent Ty Burns in the Republican Primary. Democrat Sam Jennings is running unopposed.

There is no local State Senate race. Incumbent Chuck Hall, a Republican, did not draw opposition.

In the Governor's race, incumbent Republican Kevin Stitt is being challenged by Joel Kintsel, Mark Sherwood and Moira McCabe. Connie Johnson and Joy Hofmeister are vying for the Democratic nomination. Natalie Bruno (Libertarian) and Ervin Yen (Independent) will be on the ballot for the General Election.

The special Senate race to fill the unexpired term following Sen. Jim Inhofe's resignation, has a deep pool of Republican candidates with Michael Coibion, Nathan Dahm, Jessica Garrison, Alex Gray, Randy Greener, Luke Holland, Adam Holley, Laura Moreno, Markwayne Mullin, Scott Pruitt, Paul Royse, T.W. Shannon and John Tompkins. Kendra Horn (D), Robert Murphy (L) and Ray Woods (I) will be on the ballot for the general election.

In the regular Senate race, Democrats will chose between Madison Horn, Arya Azma, Jo Glenn, Dennis Baker, Jason Bollinger and Brandon Wade. Incumbent Republican James Lankford is being challenged by Joan Farr and Jackson Lahmeyer. Kenneth Blevins will advance to the General Election as a Libertarian candidate as well Micael Delaney who is running as an independent.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, District 3 incumbent Frank Lucas is being challenged by Wade Burleson and Stephen Butler. Democratic challenger Jeremiah Ross drew no opponent.

Republicans will also vote in primaries for State Auditor, Attorney General, State Treasurer, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Labor Commissioner and Corporation Commissioner.