TURNAROUNDBetween 1992 and 2008, August elections that included gubernatorial primaries were vastly more popular than those that didn’t. On average, 17,797 more Hamilton County ballots were cast in such “off-year” August elections than those that occurred a few months before a presidential election.But this month’s ballot attracted barely 1,200 fewer voters than the August 2010 election, when several big political names – Bill Haslam, Mike McWherter, Ron Ramsey, Zach Wamp — made their gubernatorial bids as former Gov. Phil Bredesen’s second and final term expired.August 2010 voters – 51,809August 2012 voters – 50,562Source: Hamilton County Election Commission
In baseball terms, Hamilton County voters couldn’t even crack a .250 batting average — fewer than one in four registered voters in Tennessee’s fourth-largest county cast a ballot in the Aug. 2 elections.
But it’s all relative: Enough residents took advantage of two weeks of early voting, hot races and beautiful election-day weather to give Hamilton County its largest turnout rate for a comparable election since 1992.
Of 216,003 registered voters, 50,562 visited the polls or mailed absentee ballots, yielding a 23 percent turnout and ending a 12-year stretch in which the rate floundered in the teens.
Hamilton County voters punched 20,000 more ballots this year than in August 2008, the last time county general elections and state and federal primaries preceded a presidential election.