High early voting turnout in Hamilton County for the general election was also seen statewide in Tennessee as polls closed Thursday night until Election Day on Tuesday.
Northwest Georgia counties in the greater Chattanooga region also saw high early voter turnout this year. Polls in Georgia closed Friday evening.
“I think people are realizing, on Election Day, you never know what could happen,” Scott Allen, Hamilton County administrator of elections, said by phone. “You never know what may come up in your life or what obstacles you may face that day to get to the polls, so that two-week early voting period — I think every election cycle — it just continues to build popularity.”
(READ MORE: Hamilton County early voting turnout projected to surpass 2020, 2016 totals)
Antonio Herrera, lead biomedical scientist at Baylor, said he tried to vote before the school day on Thursday. The line of cars to get into the election commission coupled with the line wrapping around the building led him to leave because he thought he would be late to work. Donning a Joker costume to celebrate Halloween, Herrera returned later that day on a school bus to help facilitate a group of students voting for the first time.
“It was great,” Herrera said by phone. “Everybody was enthusiastic, very cheerful. We even had some students who were not even old enough to vote yet who were interested in coming along and seeing the process.”
In Hamilton County, 48% of active voters cast ballots in person or by mail, surpassing the 43.9% turnout in 2020 and the 37.4% turnout in 2016. More than 1,800 absentee ballots are outstanding, so the number will continue to rise, according to Allen. About 14% of the early voters were first-time voters in Hamilton County, meaning they either voted for the first time or voted in Hamilton County for the first time. More than 117,000 ballots were cast during early voting, topping the 103,600 and 73,800 totals in 2020 and 2016 early voting.
Voters in rural areas of the county had higher participation in early voting than in 2020, likely because of two recently added early voting precincts in Soddy-Daisy and Ooltewah, according to Allen.
While the election commission does not know the partisan breakdown of early voters — because Tennesseans don’t register to vote within political parties — the commission analyzed early voters based on balloting history. As of Friday, based on the most recent primary election participation of voters, of the 117,253 early votes at the time, 46,735 of the Hamilton County early voters had voted as Republicans, 29,035 as Democrats and 41,483 as nonpartisan.
(READ MORE: Unlikely pairing: Republican, Democrat bond outside Hamilton County elections office)
Blake Wright voted on the first day of early voting in Hamilton County and said she hopes this year’s high early voting turnout will result in a historic total turnout for the general election. She said many women she knows are engaged in this election over concern for women’s reproductive rights.
“I love that people are excited about voting in this election,” Wright said by phone, “but we have another one in March, so I’m hoping people stay engaged and don’t just zone out after the big one passes.”
More than 2.2 million ballots were cast during early voting in Tennessee, with about 46% turnout, according to the secretary of state’s website. As of Friday afternoon, statewide early voting totals were about 66,000 ballots behind the 2020 total but still surpassed the 2016 total by more than 500,000 ballots. About 46.7% of registered voters cast early votes in 2020, and about 39% of registered voters cast early votes in 2016.
GEORGIA
More than 3.8 million ballots were cast during early voting in Georgia, according to the secretary of state’s website, with a 53.3% turnout rate among active voters as of Friday afternoon. The 2020 and 2016 statewide early voting turnout statistics were not readily available, according to a person in the state’s elections division reached by phone.
“We are knocking on 50% turnout already,” said Danielle Montgomery, director of elections for Walker County by phone.
She said this year’s early voting turnout is higher than the turnout seen in 2020 and 2016.
As of 3 p.m. Friday, 37.71% of registered voters cast early ballots in Whitfield County, Shaynee Bryson, the county elections supervisor, said by email. In 2020, 33% of registered voters cast ballots in advance, according to the email. She said a large Election Day turnout is expected as 10,000 more voters have registered in the county since the 2020 election.
Catoosa County saw a 57% voter turnout in early voting, which is higher than 2020 and 2016 early voting totals, according to John Pless, public information officer for the county.
He said voters are taking advantage of the nearly three-week period of early voting and seeing its convenience.
“It’s really refreshing to see the number of people engaged and voting,” Pless said by phone. “The big question is, is this it or are we still going to get that big Election Day surge?”
Contact Sarah Dolgin at sdolgin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6556.