The race to pick a Republican nominee for Cleveland County sheriff is down to a Moore versus Norman thingy.

And it comes to a head next Tuesday.

With the original slate of six GOP candidates cut in half, Republican voters will return to the polls Tuesday to choose between Joe Lester of Norman and Mark Hamm from Moore as their party's nominee for sheriff.

The winner will face Democrat Rick Adkins in the Nov. 4 general election.

And while the July primary vote was close -- only 106 votes separated Lester and Hamm -- both men said they expected to be in a run-off election.

"I assumed that's what would happen," Hamm said. "With just 106 votes separating us, I believe all my hard work in the primary paid off. Most people weren't expecting me to do as well as I did, but I think that support came from just going out and knocking on doors and telling people why I wanted to be sheriff."

For Hamm, the campaign's biggest issue is the county's new detention facility.

"I believe the issue is the jail," he said. "The commissioners are talking about building a new county jail, the biggest expense on the taxpayers of the county. I think we need to ask, if one is built, how is it going to be paid for and will it meet our needs for years to come?"

The next sheriff, he said, needs to have an understanding of the jail's "basic day-to-day operations."

"We need to make sure the facility that's going to be built is going to be able to meet our needs for the next 25-plus years," he said. "We need to make sure it's user-friendly, built in a responsible way. Plus there are issues in having to transport inmates back and forth to court. I hope the new sheriff will have input as regards to those housing issues."

Lester said the race isn't so much about the new jail, but management of the sheriff's office.

"The sheriff's office is a $5.5 million budget," he said. "It's very important the citizens of Cleveland County pick someone as sheriff who has the educational and supervisory experience to operate the department."

And to do that, he said, the sheriff needs experience.

"You don't turn a big company over to someone who has no experience. If you owned a big company and you were on the board of directors, would you turn the helm of that company over to someone who had no experience in budgets, supervision or management?"

The sheriff, Lester said, "doesn't need to be wearing cowboy boots, a hat and big belt buckle, and drive around on patrol" but instead "needs to be an administrator and have educated individuals around him or her who can do the job."