News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Voting totals are up across the Upper Cumberland as the early voting period ended Thursday.
Jackson, Overton, Van Buren and White Counties have all seen an increase compared to the last presidential election. White County Election Commission Administrator Dorcas Marcum said she’s seen a heavy stream of voters everyday.
“Pretty much it’s been over 500 everyday, almost 600 several days,” Marcum said. “Then on Saturday’s we did nearly 300 each one of those Saturday’s, in three hours.”
Marcum said White County has seen 6,715 early voters, a 27 percent increase from four years ago.
Overton County Election Commission Administrator Craig Story said Overton County has seen 6,653 early voters. Story said that despite seeing a 30 percent increase while dealing with the pandemic, his department was able to meet the challenge.
“The sheer volume of it is a little bit of a challenge, but then the COVID precautions that were taken,” Story said. “Things have ran smoothly and I mean, that’s a credit to our workers.”
Jackson County has seen the largest increase of the four counties that were able to provide their early voting numbers from four years ago. Jackson County Election Administrator Clay Thaxton said 2,664 people have early voted this election, which said he believes is a 53 to 54 percent increase.
“Election Day I think we’ll still have a big turnout but where we’ve had such a big turnout I still kind of wonder if we’ll have a moderate turnout or if it will still be busy on Election Day,” Thaxton said. “It definitely was a little bit of a surprise to me.”
Van Buren County has seen 43 percent of its 4,164 active registered voters take part in early voting. Van Buren County Election Commission Administrator Wayne Simons said he believes the combination of the presidential election and the Van Buren County Wheel Tax is driving people to the polls.
