Early voting
Early voting in Tennessee continues through Tuesday, Feb. 23, at the Hamilton County Election Commission, Brainerd Recreation Center, Eastwood Church and North River Civic Center.
In the Tennessee Republican presidential primary on March 1, your vote will matter even more than you think.
If you’re a Donald Trump or Ted Cruz supporter, your vote will help cement the relative strength polls say they already have following the Super Tuesday, or SEC, primary on that day.
If you’re a fan of any other guy – which now can be said since Carly Fiorina has left the race – your vote won’t count for much unless he gets 20 percent of the vote. That’s the way Tennessee and several other states which will hold primaries on that day have structured their delegate process.
So, let’s say Trump and Cruz get 30 and 22 percent of the vote in the Volunteer State, respectively. Then it breaks down to 19 percent for Marco Rubio, 12 percent for Jeb Bush, 10 percent for Ben Carson, 3 percent for John Kasich and 4 percent for the rest of the candidates put together. After all, 14 names still appear on the presidential preference primary ballot, though Chris Christie, Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum all have ended their campaigns.