Voters Turnout Early Ahead Of March Special Election

Early voting kicked off Thursday and is going on for a couple more hours, ahead of next Tuesday’s special election.

One of the biggest items on the ballot is the Oklahoma State Question about legalizing recreational marijuana. There has been a lot of talk about why people are for and against state question 820, so election officials hope that will mean a big turnout at the polls.

A steady stream of voters came through the doors of the Rogers County election board to cast their vote.

"With this election, nothing is typical, I mean we don't know what to expect, so we're preparing for the greatest turnout as best we can," says election board secretary Julie Dermody.

She says they also have an early voting location at the Central Baptist Church in Owasso to help, if there is a big turnout.

"The county is so large and there is a huge population over in the Owasso area, we wanted to be able to offer that service," Dermody says. 

At the Tulsa County election board, secretary Gwen Freeman says it's been steady, but they are prepared for bigger crowds.

"We were anticipating that or either a crush of voters, this is much easier for the folks standing in line and they can get in and out pretty easily," says Freeman.

"I appreciate that because you don't have to stand in long lines, and if the weather was bad, you'd be in bad shape because you'd be in that weather, so I do like the early voting," says voter Ronald Stephens.

He says he's been voting his whole life.

"I'm glad we got these rights, I have grandparents that never was able to vote, so every time I got a chance to vote, I'm voting for the right that we have," says Stephens.

Even though he doesn't expect many people to turn out for this election, he's encouraging people to get out and make their opinions heard.

"I hope everybody comes out to vote how they'd like to have it, that was you can't complain, at least you know you tried," Stephens says.

Early voting in Tulsa County ends at 6 tonight but will start back up tomorrow from 8 am to 6 pm. The same goes for Rogers County.