Abortion wasn’t on the ballot in Tennessee, but it was on the minds of voters

After waiting in line for more than an hour, Jacqueline Smith voted at a recreation center in Spring Hill with one thing on her mind — Tennessee’s fleeting abortion access.

Smith wants to unseat Gov. Bill Lee, who pushed through the state’s abortion ban kicking in later this month.

“In every single reason I vote, that is behind it. I will never vote for someone — Democrat, Independent or Republican — who tells me I don’t have a right to govern my own body. Even if everyone around me disagrees,” she says, noting how Republicans tend to dominate politics in Williamson County.

Smith says she was surprised how many people in line asked for a Democrat ballot, like she did. They included Cathy Matheny, who voted just ahead of Smith, while wearing a black tank top with the word “vote” overlaid on images from “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

“You just hide in the wings and come vote,” Matheny says.

Farther south in Maury County, 19-year-old Hannah Boaz cast her first vote, largely off recommendations from her family members. But that complicated voting for Republicans, since most running for office don’t express support for abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

“I, personally, don’t like [abortion]. But I do believe that there are certain situations that I think it should be available,” Boaz says.

Boaz says she feels like there’s not much she can do at this point. Abortion is going to be criminalized with almost no exceptions, and the state legislature does not appear eager to scale back the law.

In Nashville, voter Lisa Cole says she paid closer attention than normal to the end of the ballot and the judicial retention elections, “given what happened with the Supreme Court” in overturning Roe v. Wade.

“It’s clear that who becomes judges locally could eventually end up down the decades,” Cole says. “So, it’s really important to vote for the local judges.”