Trump Trumps Clinton And Leads A Ballot Of State And Local Winners

A larger than usual number of Absentee votes made for a late night for the Jefferson County Election Commission, as they worked to provide the tallies of the Presidential Election Cycle on November 8, 2016. Early voting in Jefferson County totaled 12641, which was a record setting early vote according to the Administrator of Elections Charles Gibson. Historically, Jefferson County has been splitting early and Election Day voting in a near 50/50 split. This election cycle, however, twice as many voters cast early ballots as those who waited until Election Day to vote. The total vote count in Jefferson County was 19424, which represented a 64% voter turnout.

The big winner on the national front was Republican nominee Donald Trump. He was the prize taker in Jefferson County, as well, garnering nearly 77% of the vote. A Trump win in Jefferson County was no surprise, as the local vote consistently goes to the Republican nominee. What was notable was that his vote count was over a thousand votes higher than either McCain in 2008 or Romney in 2012. Other races with national impact saw Roe returning to the U. S. House representing the 1st Congressional District and Duncan returning the the U.S. House representing the 2nd Congressional District.

On the State level, three incumbents representing Jefferson County, Faison and Farmer in the Tennessee House Districts 11 and 17 respectively and Niceley for Tennessee Senate District 8 will all be returning to Nashville. While Niceley and Farmer were unopposed, Faison fended off Democrat Marjorie Ramsey 4577 to 1210.

Several local municipal elections were highlighted in the November 8 election. Also on the ballot for White Pine, Dandridge and Jefferson City was Wine in Grocery Stores. The referendum passed in all three municipalities, with 78% of Dandridge voters supporting, 73% of Jefferson City voters supporting and 67% of White Pine voters supporting the referendum. Retail package sales found favor with New Market voters with 57% voting to approve.

Dandridge, White Pine and New Market elected Mayors. In Dandridge, incumbent George Gantte held off challengers Kay Rutherford-Williams and Mike Chambers, with Gantte at 399 to Williams 356 and Chambers 237. Beau Tucker will serve as Mayor of New Market with 338 votes to Guinn’s 120 and Akard’s 109. In White Pine, Glenn Warren heavily carried the ballot with 495 votes to win the office of Mayor. He was followed by Taylor with and Ellis with 122 and 155 respectively.

Other municipal leadership seats were also up for grabs this election cycle. Aldermen were elected in both Dandridge and New Market, with Jefferson City and White Pine electing Councilmen. Baneberry also elected a City Commissioner and the winner of that position has not, yet, been identified. Keane and Hernandez both came away with 118 votes. They were followed by Bates with 39. Fifty provisional ballots were cast County Wide and the impact of those ballots on the Baneberry race is not known. In Dandridge, three Aldermen were seated Tuesday, with incumbent Nelson returning with 405 votes, following ticket leader Elder with 487 votes and leading Reese with 384. Also on the ballot were Smith with 355 and Witberg with 171.

New Market seated two Aldermen, Maurice Solomon led the ticket with 310 votes. He will be joined by Chris Fair with 239 votes. Also on the ballot was Cunningham with 217 votes. In Jefferson City, Combs and Melton, with 830 and 789 votes respectively, led the vote count for two Council positions. Also on the ballot were Embrey with 528, Mills with 343 and Sonnen with 219. In White Pine, Ann Strom with 310 votes and Robert Lowe with 263 led the vote count. Marshall brought in 253 votes, Brady with 202 and Buckner with 129 rounded out the ballot.

Source: K. Depew, News Director