The Coffee County election process will crank up in full force on May 1.
Primaries will be in May, the county general election and state primary in August and state general in November.
County elections in 2018 will be held for: mayor, all 21 commissioners, trustee, sheriff, county clerk, circuit court clerk, register of deeds, road superintendent, road commissioners and constables.
City elections in Manchester and Tullahoma will also be held in August.
There will be some new faces on the county commission as some current commissioners will not seek re-election: Sam Mai, Republican representing Manchester’s District 4, Diane Argraves, a Democrat representing rural District 11, Kerry Farrar, a Democrat representing District 8, Mark Kelly, a Republican representing Tullahoma’s District 15, Kimberly Martin, a Republican representing Tullahoma’s District 17, and Rush Bricken, a Republican representing Tullahoma’s District 21 have all decided not seek re-election. Others may choose not to run, but have not announced.
In county-wide elections Coffee County Mayor Gary Cordell will seek re-election and former mayor David Pennington will also run for the office he once had.
Sheriff Steve Graves, a Democrat, is undecided. Republicans Chad Partin, Brandon Tomberlin, Larry Swan and Harry Conway say they are running for sheriff. Danny Ferrell, an independent, has said he will enter the race.
Only incumbents have said they’ll run for the following four county positions. Trustee John Marchesoni, Republican will run for re-election. Register of Deeds Donna Toney, Republican, will seek re-election.
Longtime Circuit Court Clerk Heather Duncan, Democrat, is seeking re-election and Democrat County Clerk Theresa McFadden, is running once again.
Candidates may pick up petitions for the May 1 primary starting Nov. 17. Qualifying deadline is Feb. 15, with withdrawal deadline Feb. 22.
Deadline for voter registration for the May 1 primary is April 2.
Manchester and Tullahoma municipal elections will be held on Aug. 2.

A crash in Marion County has sent several college students to the hospital.
The South Pittsburg Mountain Volunteer Fire Department and Tennessee Highway Patrol responded to the crash on South Pittsburg Mountain Road (SR 156).
The crash occurred around 10:30pm Friday night. It involved one SUV with 10 people from Sewanee, Tennessee’s University of the South and one visitor inside. Four were taken by helicopter to the hospital. They all have serious injuries.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol says preliminary reports show the car ran off the roadway, overcorrected and came back onto the road before flipping and rolling down an embankment.
The crash occurred near the county line with Franklin County. Marion County officials said the crash scene was cleared around 2 a.m. Saturday.
Senior Associate Dean of Student Life Becky Spurlock disclosed the University’s decision to suspend operation the sorority the students were involved in until an investigation regarding the accident had been completed.

DREMC members should be on guard for a resurfacing of an electric bill payment scam, which was reported in the Manchester area last week.
The people behind this fraud instruct members to pay their electric bills right then by credit card over the phone, or they will be disconnected within 30 minutes. The scammers have left this number, 931-572-5620, ext. 1, with members to call back with their credit card information. Thankfully, most of the members became immediately aware that this was a scam and did not give any payment information to the scammers. However, one such business fell prey to the scam and sent the scammers $350.
“We appreciate our members for calling the Manchester DREMC district office and reporting the scam,” says Michael Millraney, Manchester district manager. “This gives us the opportunity to alert members across our entire service area.”
“Please remember, if you ever have questions about your bill or a recent payment, call your local DREMC office yourself to ensure that you are talking to an actual DREMC employee working in one of our local offices,” advised Millraney.
DREMC mails late notices if your bill is past due, and the notices include a scheduled disconnection date. There also are a variety of ways to pay bills, including in the local offices, by phone talking to a DREMC representative on lines manned 24/7, online at www.dremc.com and by using our free and secure mobile app download.