Poll officers Louise Culbreth, Jean Wilson and Marie Holder, from left, total the ballots while at the Fort Oglethorpe City Hall on Nov. 4, 2014.Tuesday’s election brought historic changes to the state’s founding document and tossed Prohibition-era alcohol laws in cities across the state. But still, 124,457 Hamilton County voters were not enticed by the 2014 midterm ballot.
Unofficial turnout figures show 40 percent of the county’s 207,625 voters cast ballots in the 2014 election. That means 83,168 residents spoke for all.
And that figure was nearly 2 percent lower than in 2010, the last midterm election.
Statewide turnout numbers were not available Tuesday, according to Blake Fontenay, a spokesman for Tennessee Secretary of State Tré Hargett.
But Hamilton County’s figures were consistent with those in neighboring Marion, Sequatchie, Bledsoe, Meigs and McMinn counties. All were lower than 2010 figures, and none topped 40 percent.