Just what is it that needs to be done to the Adams Office Building in order for early voting to be held at the Election Offices? The answer seems kind of unclear. Recently the State Fire Marshall’s Office came out and did an inspection of the Adams Office Building which houses the Election Offices, Cannon County SAVE, Veterans office amongst other offices. After the inspection, the fire marshall listed 18 violations that needed to be corrected in order for the building to stay open. The Cannon County Election Commission called an emergency meeting to gather ideas on what to do to get back in compliance so that the building would be open when early voting starts. They decided to make sure that the back door would be open during early voting hours, put together an emergency plan diagram to display in the building and provide a volunteer firefighter to walk the grounds to make sure there are no fire hazards throughout the early voting periods. The Commission felt that by taking these steps that it show the fire marshall that improvements would be done. The other option if he didn’t okay the efforts was that the Election Office would have to find temporary housing for the Early Voting period. WBRY-News talked to County Executive Mike Gannon who offered a slightly different take on the situation. Gannon said he discussed with the Fire Marshall at the time of inspection that they had no intentions of closing the building down for Early Voting. Gannon is working with an engineering company Hailey and Associates to see what options there are to bring the building in compliance. Gannon says the only stipulation that has to be done for Early Voting to be held in the Election offices is that the back doors which are connected to the Cannon County Ambulance Service must be unlocked and accessible during the Early Voting hours. Documents were provided not only by the Election Offices that detailed the 18 violations but also provided by Christopher Garrett, spokesman of the State Fire Marshall’s Office. When WBRY News asked specific questions about the violations and what needed to be done to keep the building open, Mr. Garrett would not comment outside of the documents that were previously sent..
