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Wlaf1450Campbell County Administrator of Elections Mallory Rosenfeld shares details
LAFOLLETTE, TN (SPECIAL TO WLAF)- Campbell County Administrator of Elections Mallory Rosenfeld guest spoke at the Campbell County Rotary Club luncheon held at the LaFollette Methodist Church on Tuesday.
Rosenfeld said she wanted to address “Rotarians and the public on the primary election process and another opportunity for voters to cast their ballot.” She explained the process of how a primary election works.
In the words of Mallory Rosenfeld:
“A primary election happens when an election is to be held for a political party for the purpose of allowing members of that party to select a nominee or nominees to appear on the general election ballot.
If a statewide or countywide political Party desires to have a primary election, the county executive committee must notify the county election commission, in writing, of the call for the primary election.
The county election commission must receive notice at least 180 days before the qualifying deadline for the primary election date.
The county executive committee may revoke or rescind its decision to nominate by the primary election by again, providing written notice not less than 90 days before the qualifying deadline.
The county political parties may call for a primary election to be held In May for one or for all possible offices.
If one or both political parties call for a primary election, then candidates seeking to run in the primary and candidates seeking to run independently must qualify at the same deadline. For instance, this year, that date was set for February 19, 2026.
Although independent candidates must qualify at the same time as primary candidates, the name of those independent candidates will not appear on the primary ballot in May.
Primary candidates and Independent candidates will have the same withdrawal deadline as well, which will be Thursday, February 26, 2026.
Once this withdrawal deadline is passed, our office will follow procedures as any other election, we coordinate with our vendor, Harp on getting our ballots correct with proper spelling of candidates from their filed petitions, placing and setting of the machines, locking the machines, we coordinate with the location of where our precincts are, we coordinate with our poll workers, making sure each precinct will have enough workers and to evaluate we have representation of both parties present by the poll worker’s voting record. All of this is done with members of my office or Campbell County Election Commissioners with one republican and one democrat present with each operation and signing off with their duties.
As mentioned before, the primary election’s ballot will only show candidates who were seeking to run in the primary, no independent candidates will be on the May 5th primary ballot.
For the primary, the voter will come in either during early voting or on Election Day, the voter will mark and sign their application to vote either as a Republican or Democrat voter.
Voters will use the same machines that we have used in the 2024 election cycle. You will vote on the machine accordingly; a paper ballot will be printed from the machine. You will take your paper ballot to the scanner to cast your ballot, and the ballot will then be sealed and then ultimately stored in our office sealed for another 22 or so months. After each State and Federal Election, the State requires us to do a tabulation audit to verify that Campbell County Election procedures and tabulations result in no discrepancy or variations of the vote. Every election audit we have completed has resulted in 100% clean audits.
Candidate-wise, the primary will be just like the State or Federal Primaries that the State of Tennessee has been operating under for many years. Candidates will be voted for, the top candidate in each office ,where it has vote for one, will go to the August 6, 2026 General Election, these candidates are for County Attorney, County Mayor, County Trustee, County Circuit Court Clerk, County Clerk, Register of Deeds, Sheriff, School Board per district and Constable per district. The candidate with the most votes will go on to August for both political parties. The County Commission is a little different. There are three seats up for election per district. The three primary candidates in each political party for county commission with the most votes will go to the County General Election in August.
The County General Election will be held on August 6, 2026. This ballot will have the candidates with the most votes in the primary plus the independent candidates listed as well.
It’s very important that the voter is aware that the primary election in May does not determine final election results for these county offices. That being said, don’t just show up in May and think it’s over. There will be a general election in August which will determine the official election results on who will take office for these positions. It’s important for voters to be aware to vote for both elections, on May 5, 2026 and August 6, 2026.
The registration deadline for voters will be on April 6, 2026. You can register at our office, pick up a form at the County Clerk or Register Deeds and mail to our office, register at the DMV, the Health Department or Human Services, local county libraries or go to GoVoteTN.gov and register online.
In order to register, a voter must be 18 years or old, be a US Citizen, a citizen of Tennessee and not have any felony charges against them.
If a citizen wishes to gain their voting rights back after being convicted of a felony, to restore their rights, we ask those to see us at our office for more information.
Other important dates for the voters to aware of is that there will be Early Voting for the upcoming May 5, 2026 primary. There will be two locations to vote Early, one at the main office adjacent to the courthouse at the Campbell County Election Commission and one at the Jellico Municipal Building at 410 S. Main Street in downtown Jellico.
The dates for early voting is April 15 thru April 30, 2026.
The last day to receive an Application for an Absentee ballot will be on April 25, 2026. Our website campbellcountyelections.com has the Absentee Ballot forms online. You can print one and mail it or call our office to request. Note that the State of Tennessee has determined what qualifies you to vote absentee and that can be found on our website as well.
August 6, 2026, will not only be the County General Election. On the ballot will also be the State Primary. The following offices will be on the August State Primary ballot; Governor, US Senate, US House of Representative, Tennessee House of Representatives, State Execute Committeemen and Committeewoman. And any applicable Judge Retentions Questions that the State Election Coordinators office will determine at a later time.
The last election we will have for the year will be The State General Election and Municipal elections for LaFollette, Jellico, Caryville and Rocky Top on November 3, 2026.
Our office is currently seeking poll workers for the upcoming elections. We are in search of people who are willing to work with voters and the public. Some positions require a lot of standing, but not all. There is training for each position. We do take sixteen years old and above to work. If interested, please let me know or call our office at 423.562.9777.
The Campbell County Election Office is located at 129 Church Alley at Jacksboro. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-02/25/2026-6AM)