Early Voting In Tennessee Starts With Record First Day

Early voting is off to a record start in Tennessee. Totals from the first day were larger than both of President Barack Obama’s elections in 2008 and 2012, according to the state’s Division of Elections.

On the first day, 143,219 ballots were cast (including absentee voters), with especially high totals in Knoxville, where one-day numbers were roughly on par with Nashville’s.

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See the county-by-county breakdown.

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett says the lines at early voting sites should be a warning to election administrators: Prepare for a big day on Nov. 8.

“Nobody wants to be the person who on election night nobody can get election results because they got an hour’s-worth of people standing in line,” Hargett says. “We haven’t had a problem with long lines, traditionally, here in Tennessee. But if you have a long line, it’s going to be during this election.”

Tennessee’s early voting period runs through Nov. 3. Many counties have already added early voting sites in preparation for a high turnout.

Numbers during the primaries
broke records, both for early voting and total turnout. And in those contests, Republicans showed up two-to-one over Democrats.