Staff reports

Early voting for the runoff races for county tax commissioner and state court judge begins June 10 and runs through June 14 at the County Registration and Election office on Hwy 119 in Springfield. Voting hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. There is NO Saturday voting.

Absentee ballots may be requested through June 7, but must be mailed so it is postmarked by June 18 to count; or just drop it off at your polling place on Election Day, June 18. Absentee ballots can be requested on the www.effinghamcounty.org website by clicking on the “Government” tab, then “Elections & Registration” tab, then “Absentee voting” tab on the left.

Polls are open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on June 18. If you are in line to vote by 7 p.m., polls must remain open until every voter in line has voted.

Because the tax commissioner is a partisan (Republican), if you want to vote in that race, you must request a Republican ballot. The Democratic and nonpartisan ballots will have only the state court judge race on them.

The runoff is scheduled because none of the candidates in their respective races achieved 50% of the vote on primary election day May 21.

In the tax commissioner’s race, Kelly Hoffner received 2,630 (43.9%) of the vote while Daniel Rodewolt received 2,552 (42.6%) votes. Tony Sapp    received 804 (13%) votes. The runoff is between Hoffner and Rodewolt.

In the state court judge race, incumbent Stephen R. Yekel received 2,986 (42.1%) of the votes while Melissa Calhoun received 2,066 (29.1%) of the votes. Calhoun edged out Raymond Dickey who received 2,025 (28.6%) votes. The runoff is between Yekel and Calhoun.