Hispanic Advisory Group Meets For Third Time
The City of Dalton hosted a third meeting on Thursday with leaders from the Hispanic business community to continue the momentum towards formalizing the group as a standing advisory committee to the City Council. The initiative began with a meeting in February and a second meeting in March. The meetings have included presentations from different city leaders to give participants not just background information on how different aspects of the local government work, but also how Hispanic leaders can become involved. Thursday's session focused on the local school system and also the County Board of Elections.
After welcoming participants to the meeting, City Administrator Andrew Parker handed over the meeting to City Schools Superintendent Dr. Tim Scott. Dr. Scott's presentation on the Dalton Public Schools included information on dual language immersion programs that instruct in both English and Spanish to produce bilingual students as well as pre-K programs and other early start initatives available in Dalton. School board member Matt Evans also addressed the group and echoed Dr. Scott in stressing the importance of parents and residents being involved with the school system and feeling free to contact school leaders to get further involved.
Mary Hammontree, the Elections Supervisor for the Board of Elections also addressed the group and answered a lot of questions on topics such as voter registration and election dates. Hammontree told the group that for the first time this year, the Board of Elections planned to use the county's Code Red alert system to broadcast reminders on early voting dates and general election dates (to sign up, text "WhitfieldAlerts" to 99411). Hammontree reminded partifcipants that they can automatically be registered to vote when they get driver's licenses. She also shared online links where voters can register to vote or check on their registration (click here). Hammontree also shared the link for the "My Voter Page" where voters can check on their status and get important information on the upcoming elections they are eligible to vote in, as well as check on the status of absentee ballots (click here for the My Voter Page).
2022 is an important election year with mid-term elections for national offices as well as the election for Governor in Georgia. Hammontree noted several important dates to remember:
- May 24th, 2022 - General Primary Day
- June 21st, 2022 - Primary Runoff Day (if necessary)
- November 7th, 2022 - General Election Day
- December 6th, 2022 - General Election Runoff Day (if necessary)
Hammontree also urged meeting attendees to get involved with elections by serving as poll workers. Hammontree stressed that having bilingual poll workers was very important, and told anyone ages 16 or older interested in serving as a poll worker to contact the Elections Office at 706-278-7183.
The County Board of Elections and Registrar website can be found here.
