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Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

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Free Press Opinion: One voter’s experience in trying to vote for an admired longtime friend

Staff File Photo / The Hamilton County Election Commission is pictured during an early voting period for the Hamilton County general election and the state primary in 2022.
Staff File Photo / The Hamilton County Election Commission is pictured during an early voting period for the Hamilton County general election and the state primary in 2022. Staff File Photo / The Hamilton County Election Commission is pictured during an early voting period for the Hamilton County general election and the state primary in 2022.

It was a sign, we feel, of the troubling times regarding voting that have befallen our county, our state and our country today.

On Sunday, we received a call from a friend of some 50 years. A yellow dog Democrat, his worldview and ours diverge greatly. His view of individual politicians and officeholders are frequently not the same as ours.

Always active in local politics but now a seasoned citizen, he had some concerns about voting. Some people had told him about the statement that voters must sign in order to receive a ballot.

(IN THE NEWS: Hamilton County early voting surges past recent midterm cycles)

The most recent addition to the 1972 Tennessee law saying a voter is a member of the party whose primary they’re voting in was this: “If this is a primary election, I am a bona fide member of and affiliated with the political party in whose primary I seek to vote; or I declare allegiance to the political party in whose primary I seek to vote and state that I intend to affiliate with that party.”