Tennessee: Early voting turnout breaking records in county, state

The Hamilton County Election Commission was slammed with voters Thursday, the last day of early voting in Tennessee, officials said.

“It’s just absolutely unreal,” said Charlotte Mullis-Morgan, chief deputy elections administrator. “They’re around the building.”

Turnout totals were not available Thursday, but as of Wednesday, about 15,000 more people had voted early than had voted in the two weeks of early voting in the 2004 election, records show.

Ms. Mullis-Morgan said that’s a record for early voting turnout.

Statewide, more voters have voted early than ever before, as well, said Brook Thompson, Tennessee state elections coordinator.

Early voting started since Oct. 15, and about 1.5 million votes in Tennessee likely were cast early, which Mr. Thompson called “a staggering number.” He said that probably would amount to half or more of the total votes cast in the state.

In Hamilton County, Ms. Mullis-Morgan said the percentage probably won’t be that high.

In 2004, about 30 percent of the votes in the county were cast before Election Day. That percentage likely would be higher this year, Ms. Mullis-Morgan said, but she didn’t guess how much higher.

But Michaele Merritt, 22, who voted at the Brainerd Recreation Center location, waited about an hour to vote.

“It was worth it, this is major,” Ms. Merritt said. “The line is long today, but I was worried it was only going to get longer, that people would be on the street corner on Tuesday.”

Ms. Mullis-Morgan agree that long lines on Election Day — ones that might take an hour or more to get through — could deter some from voting.

In terms of overall turnout, Ms. Mullis-Morgan said she was expecting about 70 to 75 percent of registered voters to cast ballots.

Ms. Mullis-Morgan said she hadn’t seen waits longer than 45 minutes for early voting at the county’s three locations.

In 2004, nearly 78 percent of Hamilton County voters cast ballots, but there was a smaller pool of voters.

Hamilton County has more than 205,000 registered voters, Ms. Mullis-Morgan said. In 2004, there were a little less than 177,000.

Staff Writer Adam Crisp contributed to this story.