Early Voting Down, Turnout Questions Ahead Of Tuesday

Low numbers in early voting ahead of Super Tuesday across the Upper Cumberland could lead to higher turnout at the polls Tuesday.

Putnam County Election Commission Chairman Phillip Adams said early voting down 36 percent from the election four years ago. He said this may be due to a general lack of interest in this election, or lead to a much larger election-day turnout than normal.

“Part of it is, there’s not a lot of people on the ballot,” Adams said. “It’s the primary and of course, we always get up big for the presidential final in November, but the primary often can be a little lighter turnout.”

Adams said usually about half of voters early vote, but only some 2,500 have voted for this election compared to some 4,000 four years ago. He said he was very surprised by the lack of early voting given the growing population.

Overton County Administrator of Elections Craig Story said early voting also down there. He said often in the presidential primary, people are worried their candidate could drop out after they vote, but before election day.

“Voters want to make sure that they get to vote for who they want to, so that may hesitate and not early vote with us, and then come on election day and vote,” Story said.

Story said many of Overton County’s local elections are uncontested, which could play a role in what he expects to be a light turnout on Tuesday.

“We’ve got some folks that are running in the primary and we’ve got others that are going to be on the ballot as independents, and that won’t be on the ballot until August,” Story said.