On a sun-splashed, Chamber of Commerce Thursday afternoon, the intensity of the campaign to be the next Hamilton County mayor was evident outside the Hamilton County Election Commission off Amnicola Highway.
The three candidates vying to be the Republican nominee had tents and smiling supporters in the parking lot.
You're likely aware of the candidates since Matt Hullander, Sabrena Smedley and Weston Wamp have had more TV face time around these parts than Cindy Sexton or David Glenn.
And let's be real clear: The tussle for the nomination from the GOP and it's pachyderm symbol is the de facto election. There has not been a projected landslide involving a Hamilton County resident and an elephant since Russ Huesman and the UTC football went to Tuscaloosa a few years ago as six-touchdown underdogs.
The left-leaning Chattanooga Times editorial page endorsed Wamp and the Free Press editorial page backed Smedley. I'm sure if there were a political writer for Storm Windows Quarterly, he or she would endorse Huillander, though.
So the days from now until when early voting ends on April 28 and the polls open on May 3 will determine Mayor Jim Coppinger's replacement atop Hamilton County government.
And judging by the first day and a half of early voting, the importance of this contest has been lost on us. When I pushed my ballot through a few minutes before 2 on Thursday, I was ballot No. 346.
"Yeah, that total is over the first two days," Hamilton County election official Jamie Hightower said. "We usually have been heavier on the first day than [Wednesday], but it's been slow. Steady, but slow."
There was no wait. I'm 51, and I would have qualified as a whipper-snapper among the 15 or so voters I watched come and go in my 30 minutes there.
Hightower's acknowledgment that the first day of early voting was slow is surprising. At least to me. Sure, there is a lot of time left, but this is the first truly competitive county mayor's race in at least a quarter-century.
For comparison, the last time Coppinger ran was in 2018, and he ran unopposed in the primary. He collected 11,471 votes in that primary, according to the election commission website.
If that's the baseline - and again, considering the issues and the importance, I would hope that we could get more than the 12,714 who voted in the local GOP primary four years ago - then think of the finances invested.
So if this primary is the finish line and the numbers remain similar, even my Auburn math tells me that's $100 or so per vote cast in the primary.
I still hope there will be more than the 2018 turnout. But at $100 a vote, with all the commercials, flyers and signs - although there were roughly half as many signs in the grass at the election commission as the 400 or so votes through the first day and a half - that's a staggering investment for one person's filled-in circle.
"I've been surprised by how contested it's been," Chattanoogan Ron Spruill said after casting his early vote Thursday. "We've definitely seen more flyers in the mail this year."
Spruill's trips to the trash with the campaign paraphernalia also came with a caveat. "We keep some of the flyers," he said, "to see if they do what they say they are going to do."
In an election season as important as this, be more like Ron Spruill, gang.
Go vote and hold our officials accountable. That will generate more change than a thousand Tweets and a $100-per-vote primary.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6273. Follow him on Twitter @jgreesontfp.
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Jay Greeson