County Registrar Cochran Extending Retirement Date

The transition at the Stephens County Registrar’s office is hitting a snag…

It’s called the December 4th Special Primary.

Registrar Bill Cochran was expected to retire the end of this week, but County Administrator Phyllis Ayers says complications with the November Election have changed his plans.

“With the addition of the re-run election of House District 28, and the apparent run-off for State races, he is probably going to stay around to no later than December 14th,” Ayers said. “He has adjusted his retirement letter today. Eureka Gober will be taking over as the County Registrar. She went through an interview process and has already been working in that office.”

Ayers said Cochran decided to stay through the December 4th run off and special primary because of how complicated and confusing the voting is likely to be.

“In the history of me working with Stephens County, I don’t ever recall this happening,” she said. “There will be two races going on at the same time; one for the May primrary re-run and one for the State run-off, and the machines have to be separate. You will probably have Bill looking over one race and Eureka looking over the other or both looking over both, but we just feel like for the citizens of Stephens County, this is just not the time and I appreciate Bill even considering staying on with us. But his heart is for Stephens County residents also.”

Early voting for the May Special Primary for House District 28 is going on now.

But as of Wednesday, provisional ballots were still being counted around the state as the deadline to certify the election was pushed to this Friday.

Until that is sorted out, it’s not clear when the early voting will begin for the Secretary of State run-off.

Ayers said however that on December 4th, the Precinct at the Senior Center will be divided into two separate voting areas; one for the House District 28 Special Primary and one for the November run-off election.