Carter County moves some voting locations due to flood damage

CARTER COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Early voting began in Tennessee Wednesday, but some voters in Carter County may find themselves casting their vote on Election Day at different locations thanks to the destruction of Hurricane Helene.

Thomas Whitehead of the Carter County Election Commission spoke with News Channel 11 Wednesday, as a line of early voters extended outside of Carter County’s early voting location in Elizabethton. Whitehead said the turnout of early voters for the Nov. 5 election has been strong.

“We had lines starting at 9 [a.m.], and you can see what we’ve got now,” Whitehead said at noon on Wednesday. “They are lined all the way up the street, and it’s been very steady, and at the present time we’ve voted a little over 300.”

Whitehead said the large early voting turnout is not surprising given the notoriety of the presidential election.

“The presidential election is always our largest turnout of voters, and it’ll be the same way this Election Day,” he said. “It’ll be a good turnout, but people are turning out, and that’s great and I’m glad.”

Come Nov. 5, though, some Carter County voters will not be filling out their ballots at their usual locations. Due to damage from Hurricane Helene, some precincts will now vote at other locations.

“Elk Mills precinct, of course, got completely destroyed,” Whitehead said. “It was at the fire department up in Elk Mills. They are coming down to Little Milligan [Elementary] so we’ll have two precincts there. Little Milligan precinct at one end of the building and Elk Mills at the other end of the building.”

In addition to the Elk Mills and Little Milligan precincts sharing a location on Election Day, the Tiger Valley and Hampton precincts will also both vote at Hampton Elementary School on Nov. 5.

Voters in the Tiger Valley precinct typically vote at Hampton High School, which was damaged by floodwaters and resulted in the temporary relocation of students to the Carter County Schools’ Central Office building in Elizabethton.

Early voting in Tennessee runs through Oct. 31. In Carter County, early voters can head to the election commission at 116 Holston Avenue in Elizabethton from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. until noon on Saturdays.

For a full list of Carter County voting locations and more information on the upcoming general election, click here.

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