Early Voter Turnout Struggling

Despite the fervor that accompanied the May Primary Election, Jefferson County has had a less than stellar start to the August 7, 2014 General Election. While the General Election historically does not pull in the voters like a Primary Election, according to numbers provided by the Tennessee Secretary of State, Jefferson County was trailing its own 2010 numbers by more than 200 votes, six days into early voting.

Administrator of the Jefferson County Election Commission Charles Gibson had expressed disappointment with the early numbers, however the pattern is proving to be more expected than surprise. Gibson has noted that Jefferson County trends toward splitting the total vote by early and poll day voting, as was evident in the 2010 August election when the split was 45.14% early voting and 47.14% Election Day voting. Though there was a slight increase in voter turnout on Friday, July 25, 2014 when the early voting numbers daily total topped out at 294, it will take a big push in this week to meet half of the 7,944 votes that were cast in the 2010 election. Currently, 1555 residents have cast their early vote, meaning it will take around 2395 more early voters to meet the early voting totals of 2010.

Early voting will continue through Saturday, August 2, 2014. Number tallies include nursing home and absentee mail in votes.