Election

On Monday, Dec. 31, after 21 years with the Sheriff's Office, life-long Catoosa County resident Gary Sisk was sworn in as the agency's new head lawman, taking the place of long-time sheriff Phil Summers.

“It was really a great day,” Sisk said. “The buildup to Jan. 1, 2013, has been an exciting and emotional time. All the hard work we put into obtaining this goal was finally coming to a head, and I have a lot to be grateful for.”

Sisk, a graduate of Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School, has been second in command of the agency for the past 10 years.

A high voter turnout and an unprecedented write-in candidate made for an exciting and highly-anticipated general election in Walker County Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Of the 40,336 registered voters in Walker County, 54.8 percent cast their ballot — either on election day, or beforehand through early in-person or absentee mail-in voting.

The high turnout was likely spurred in part by a contentious sole county commissioner’s race between incument Bebe Heiskell and write-in challenger Ales Campbell.

Commissioner’s race

Citing millions in early-voting ballots and intensity on both sides of the presidential ticket, election officials expect an energetic turnout today as Volunteer and Peach state voters finally get their say.

Besides choosing among President Barack Obama, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and several independent presidential candidates, Tennesseans and Georgians will elect officials to various state and federal offices.

CLEVELAND — In the final days of the presidential race, Mitt Romney and President Obama have, to varying degrees, embraced a theme they seldom voiced during much of the campaign: a desire for a new era of bipartisanship.

As of Thursday morning, more than 10,000 ballots had been cast in early voting by Catoosa County residents for the Nov. 6 general election.

"We've received a total of 10,886 so far," said Catoosa elections official Tonya Moore. "10,310 have voted in person, and we've had 576 ballots returned (by mail)."

For sample ballots, click here

Early voting began on Oct. 15 and will run until tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 2), with the general election taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

About 14 percent of Walker County’s registered voters have already cast ballots for the Nov. 6 general election.

According to elections supervisor Barbara Berry, by Monday morning, Oct. 29, 4,609 early and absentee ballots had been claimed.

These numbers include voters coming through the Walker County Courthouse, those who had cast their choices at one of the four satellite polling places, and approximately 1,000 absentee ballots sent out by postal mail. Elec-tions officials said they are averaging more than 200 voters per day at the courthouse alone.

As Walker County residents are heading off to the polls in early voting, the most heated local race is beginning to draw national attention.

More than 1,800 people in Catoosa County cast ballots during the first three days of early voting for the general election.

"We've received a total of 1,834 ballots as of the end of the day Wednesday (Oct. 17)," Catoosa elections officials Tona Moore said.

Early voting opened Oct. 15 and will be allowed through Friday, Nov. 2. The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 6.

The county has 41,316 registered voters, which means that 4.5 percent had voted early just three days after early voting opened.

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Fresh off an intensely combative debate, President Barack Obama, Republican Mitt Romney and their running mates are taking their tuned-up fight to the precious few battleground states where the election is up for grabs with just 20 days to go.

DANVILLE, Ky. — In a spirited debate that laid out stark choices, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan teed up pointed arguments on the economy, social policy and America's place in the world that President Barack Obama and GOP rival Mitt Romney now will drive forward into the campaign's final stretch.

With just 25 days to go in Campaign 2012 and throngs of people already voting, Obama and Romney will try to answer two questions that their running mates posed to the tens of millions of Americans who watched Thursday's hard-fought, 90-minute debate.

"Who do you trust?" Biden asked.