Early Voting Begins For Primary Elections

Early voting for Tuesday's primary elections is now open.

"On election day you've got drivers. You've got technicians. You've got folks who are you know scattered throughout the building that are sorting through election supplies. You've got our precinct workers that are out at all the precincts. 3 deep. So, it's quite the massive effort and we have it down to pretty much kind of running like a machine," Gwen Freeman, Secretary of the Tulsa County Election Board.

If you can't make it out on election day, you've got two more days to vote early.

"Rather than complain, come vote," said Gail Randolph.

"It's American," said Karry Randolph. The Randolph family is going on vacation but said first they must do their civic duty.

"Part of citizenry is voting," said Gail. She said part of that process is educating future generations like her grandkids, Lucas and Ian.

"Voting is important because it kind of helps you to deal who's the good leader. Everybody says voting is a great process," said Lucas.

612 people early voted at the Tulsa County Election Board today.

"I was thinking that perhaps the turnout would be fairly high given the amount of political rhetoric that we've been hearing over the past year or so," said Freeman.

Election Board Secretary Gwen Freeman said every election has its reasons for pulling people to the polls.

"We've had about a 30 percent turnout for the presidential primary. That was in 2020. And then in 2018, cause you're comparing midterm years or even numbered years, in 2018 we had a 45 percent turnout, but that's also when we had the medical marijuana issue that was on the ballot," said Freeman.

Freeman said the state has strict voting security protocols. For example, the election board's machines aren't connected to the internet and paper ballots are safely stored at the bottom of the device.

"If for any reason the counter on that machine is not working properly or there's any issues with it, we can always go back, gather those paper ballots from underneath the machine and count them by hand," said Freeman. "My main concern is the safety and security and integrity of all elections."

Polls are open Tuesday, June 28 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Freeman said your Election Day assigned polling location may have changed after census redistricting. You can verify your location on your voter ID card or on the online voter portal.

"That in turn triggers us to be able to locate these precincts within those new boundary lines," said Freeman.

The Tulsa County Election Board will be open for early voting on Friday, June 24 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, June 25 from 8 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Freeman said don't forget to bring your Voter ID.