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Article by Paula Gomes, Tennessee Conservative News –
In-person early voting wrapped up last Thursday and over a quarter of all registered voters took the opportunity to vote ahead of Election Day on November 3rd, more than 1 million Tennesseans.
The total early and absentee vote turnout was 1,280,642 which is 26.66 percent of Tennessee voters. The numbers show an increase of 45.15 percent compared to 2022 according to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Division of Elections website.
Four years ago, early voting yielded just 882,310 Tennesseans at the ballot box but this year’s numbers are a little less than voter turnout in 2018 which saw 1,378,840 come out early.
In the counties of Tennessee’s three major metropolitan hubs – Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis – turnout was stronger than the overall average turnout across the state as a whole.
Davidson County had 30.79 percent turn out to vote early, Knox County had 30.03 percent, and Shelby County saw 31.29 percent.
The only other counties that saw turnout of 30 percent or greater were Loudon County with 36.7 percent (Loudon County is included in the Knoxville metropolitan area), Rutherford County with 30.36 percent, Williamson County who had the highest turnout of all 95 counties with 37.99 percent, and Wilson County with 31.75 percent.
According to NBC News, Republican voters outnumbered Democrats in the early voting tally with 55 percent of Republicans voting early compared to 39 percent of Democrats.
Of early voters in Tennessee, 86 percent were over the age of 40. Just 6 percent of Tennesseans between the age of 18 and 29 voted early and 8 percent of 30 to 39-year-olds showed up to cast their ballot ahead of Election Day.
Of those who made the effort to vote ahead of time in the state, 56 percent were women compared to 44 percent of men. Of all 2026 early voters, 67 percent also voted in 2022.
Sources:
NBC.
WSMV.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
