Hamilton County has 4.7% early voter turnout before primaries

About 4.7% of Hamilton County voters cast their ballots early for county primary races — turnout on par with similar election cycles, according to the county’s administrator of elections.

Out of over 216,000 registered voters, a little over 10,000 showed up to early voting locations or mailed their ballots by April 30. The overall percentage of those who voted before Election Day is far lower than the last election cycle for county seats in 2022, but that’s likely because there was a contested Republican primary for the open county mayor seat that year, said Scott Allen, administrator of elections.

In 2022, early voting turnout was about 9% or 10%, Allen said by phone. By the end of election day, the turnout was especially high, he said, at about 21%. Weston Wamp won the Republican primary for the mayor seat by a few hundred votes over Sabrena Smedley, a county commissioner at the time, and businessman Matt Hullander.

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“That drew a lot of people out,” Allen said. “A lot of interest in that race.”

But the most accurate year to compare to the 2026 election cycle is 2018, Allen said, when there was an incumbent county mayor candidate and a few contested primaries for Hamilton County Commission and school board seats. Early voting turnout was about 4% to 5%, and by the end of election day, it was about 10%.

That’s likely about how many voters will turn out this go-around, Allen said. Generally, about half or more of voters cast ballots during the early voting period, he said.

“We prepare for 100% turnout, staff for 100%, and then it’s sometimes disappointing when we don’t see a large turnout,” Allen said, “because we’re ready. Workers are ready. And we hope to see people get out and vote.”

BY THE NUMBERS

Under Tennessee law, voters can only pick one party’s primary to vote in. There were about 100 more Democratic ballots pulled than Republican ones, making it nearly an even split across early voters. That’s a shift from 2018, when Republican ballots in early voting made up about 57% of the total. The difference then was about 1,000 ballots.

In 2022, when Wamp was running in the contested mayoral Republican primary, the vast majority of primary ballots in early voting were Republican — about 80%.

This election cycle, over a quarter of people who voted early cast their ballots at the Hamilton County Election Commission building off Amnicola Highway.

(READ MORE: Candidates for Hamilton County Commission omitted required donation information on campaign filings)

A little over a fifth voted at the Chris L. Ramsey Sr. Community Center near the Woodmore neighborhood in Chattanooga. That location is in District 5, where there’s a contested Democratic primary for both the County Commission seat and the school board seat representing that area.

The rest were mostly evenly divided between the other locations, with the least number of people voting at the Soddy-Daisy Community Center.

Allen said there was a better turnout at a new early voting location in Harrison, which had moved further south from a previous location in Snow Hill, with a few hundred more people voting there than in 2022.

“That shows to be a positive move,” Allen said. “We’re happy about that.”

WHAT TO KNOW

Election day is Tuesday, with dozens of voting locations open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. across Hamilton County. You can find a sample ballot based on your address online.

There are 10 contested primary races on the ballot. Five of the contested races are for Hamilton County Commission seats, four are for school board seats, and the last is for Hamilton County Criminal Court Clerk.

Contact city and county reporter Siena Duncan at sduncan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.