Early voting shows not many people are coming out to the polls

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Early voting started on July 12, but Thomas Whitehead, a Carter County Election Commission member, said not many people are coming out to vote.

“This year, early voting is down quite a bit from prior years, just comparing it to 2020,” said Whitehead. “We’re off about half what we were in 2020.”

Whitehead told News Channel 11 that he believes numbers are low because the interest in voting isn’t as strong as it used to be.

“We only have really one competitive race; we have several races, but the one state representative race, I think, is the one that is bringing the people out, but it’s still off quite a bit,” Whitehead said.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan group that aims to inform voters about where to vote and the candidates running.

Ramsey McGowen, vice president of the League of Women Voters for Northeast Tennessee, said many people don’t realize the importance of voting, especially in local elections.

“In recent years, more people have tended to vote early than vote on Election Day, or at least it’s a very attractive option for many people,” said McGowen. “But in general, Tennessee voter turnout is very low, it’s among the lowest in the country.”

The League of Women Voters has a website called Vote 411 that aims to gather all information about election candidates in one place to make it easier for voters to educate themselves.

“There are other websites nationally that also try to pull this information together; we’re dependent on candidates responding to our survey,” said McGowen. “But when we have contacted every candidate, and as soon as they respond to our survey, we put their responses verbatim along with contact information.”

Early voting ends July 22 and Election Day is Aug. 1.

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