Yes, the voting polls will be open Tuesday, July 14, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. across Escambia County, Ala.
We're not electing anybody to any office. What we are doing is having runoffs on the Republican and Democratic tickets to help pick a nominee to be on the November General Election ballot, which is where we actually elect people to office.
On the Republican ticket you will choose between Jeff Sessions and Tommy Tuberville for the U.S. Senate and between Jerry Carl and Bill Hightower as the nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats will be voting between James Averhart and Kiani A. Gardner for its nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives.
The winner of Tuberville vs. Sessions will face Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones in November in the election to see who gets that seat. The winner between Carl vs. Hightower will face the winner of Averhart vs. Gardner in November. Republicans will also decide between Beth Killam and Will Smith as that party's nominee for Place 2 on the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Just so people won't get confused, if you voted in the Democratic Primary, you can't vote in the Republican runoff and vice versa. If you didn't vote in the primary you can pick who you want but you have to pick one party ballot over the other; you can't vote in both.
If you still want to vote by absentee ballot for Tuesday's runoffs, you have until 4 p.m. today (Thursday) to go to Circuit Clerk John Robert Fountain's office and pick up an application. Absentee ballots must either be returned in by hand (by the person voting) by lunch time on July 14 or mailed with a postmark on July 13 or before.
The important thing is to vote. The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives is where the rubber meets the road in terms of tax dollars coming back to our state, counties and municipalities.
We don't care who you vote for, that's up to you. We do encourage you to vote.
