By Eason Franklin
The Lowndes Signal

As election day draws near for Lowndes County residents, the deadline for voter registration and absentee ballots is also at hand.

The Lowndes County Probate Office said this week that 12 polling locations will be open on June 1, the date of the primary election, starting at 7 a.m. and will be open until 7 p.m.

The locations are White Hall town hall, Lowndesboro CME Church, Bethel Church, Mosses town hall, Braggs-New Salem Church, Hayneville Courthouse Annex, Burkville Volunteer Fire Department, Lilly Baptist Church, New Hope Church, Ft. Deposit National Guard Armory, Sandy Ridge Community Center and New Pleasant Valley.

The deadline for voter registration is May 21 at 4:30 and absentee applications must be postmarked by May 21.

Registration forms can be found and printed from the Secretary of State Web site
www.sos.state.al.us and mailed to the local Board of Registrars at P.O. Box 65, Hayneville 36040-0065.

Of the 10,125 voters in Lowndes County, not all are what the Board of Registrars considers “active voters”.

An active voter can simply walk into the polling station, vote and leave, but if a person is labeled as inactive, they are required to fill out an update form at the location to change their status to active before they can vote.

“A voter is labeled an “inactive” if Board of Registrars has been unsuccessful in its attempts to reach the person by mail,” said Board of Registrars Chairman Charles Martindale. “This is required through the National Voting Rights Act.”

The Board of Registrars has said that there are 1,771 inactive and 8,354 active voters in Lowndes County.

The Board of Registrars are appointed by the Governor, Auditor, and Ag Commissioner. In Lowndes County they include Charles Martindale, Chairman, Nancy Eagerton and Katherine Lawson.

Candidates on this year’s ballot include Congressional, County Commission, Board of Education, Sheriff, Coroner and the Democratic and Republican Executive Committees .