Early Voting Starts Friday, Continues Through August 1

Tennessee early voting starts Friday with guidelines never seen before in an election year.

Putnam County Election Commission Administrator Michele Honeycutt said social distancing, mask wearing and sanitizing will be practiced.

“Once they come into our building, we have blue tape on the floor every six feet, so they will just process through,” Honeycutt said. “We have four stations open that will process the voters. We ask the voters to please wear a mask.”

Honeycutt said all voters will complete paperwork through one station before moving to a ballot. Pens will only be used once then placed in a box to be disinfected and reused. Honeycutt said voters must bring a state or federal issued photo I.D. in order to vote.

“Most people are bringing their Tennessee driver’s license, Tennessee handgun carry permit or passport,” Honeycutt said. “We take military cards, veteran cards anything issued by the government or Tennessee state.”

Election workers are required to wear a face covering while voters are not. Honeycutt said photo identifications will not be touched by the workers and voters will not be asked to remove their mask to be identified.

Residents can vote early at the Election Commission Office until August 1st. Putnam County Early voting hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Friday, Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

“It has been very steady today,” Honeycutt said. “I was surprised. At 11 o’clock, we voted about 180 so far. There is not a line out the door which is good.”

Honeycutt said the county is still searching for election workers. Workers can be as young as 16 years old. Applications can be found at https://putnamcountytn.gov/election-commission or mailed to your address by calling (931) 526-2566.