The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
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It was a pitifully poor turnout for the August 1st primaries. Numbers recorded statewide show that Tennessee voter participation — whether voting absentee, early or on Election Day itself — was less than 14% of all registered voters, the lowest it’s been in decades.
Voter registration, on the other hand, continues to increase. Tennessee recorded having almost 4.6 million registered to vote last month, up from 3.9 million eight years ago. But not everyone who is eligible to vote in the state is registered.
Twenty percent of eligible Tennesseans have not registered despite it being easier than ever to do so. And fewer and fewer of those who are registered are making sure to do their civic duty.
According to unofficial vote totals submitted to the Tennessee Secretary of State, less than 650,000 voters cast a ballot in the most recent primary election, just 13.9% of all voters.
That total, just over 637,500, is subject to change as results are certified, but won’t vary by much.
In the last ten years, participation has tended to be higher in August primaries in the years when the office of governor is on the primary ballot. Only in 2020 did that prove not to be the case when more voters chose to send in an absentee ballot due to fears surrounding public polling places and Covid-19. However, overall voter turnout for August primaries has been declining since 2018.
Over the last three decades, the few times turnout has been this poor for an August state primary, three other times in all, it was also a presidential election year. That said, only a small percentage of Tennesseans regularly get out and vote.
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tennessee ranked 43rd in the U.S. for voter turnout in an elections report performance analysis last conducted in 2022. In 2020, Tennessee ranked 37th. And in 2018, Tennessee ranked 29th.
State officials expect that the turnout for the presidential election in November will be far greater than for the primaries.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
26 Responses
Should the low turnouts come as a surprise to you with Tennessee’s notorious voter-suppression, district-gerrymandering law and other forms of intimidation that keeps voters from the polls? You can blame mainly the Republicans for causing such voter apathy in the state!
Hmm. ‘Been readin’ the Kackler/Tampon-Tim pinko playbook like a good apparatchik, huh?
Vote American. Vote Red. Vote Trump/Vance.
IMHO, those who don’t know who their electeds are are too ignorant to vote and shouldn’t.
Right you are Dwayne. The “Don’t Know/Don’t Cares” should stay home so those of us who are informed can have more influence on how this state is governed. We have a number of problems in this state, “low voter turnout” isn’t one of them.
What a load of crap.
Well, the case in my county it was the Republicans that didn’t turn out in certain races.
Curious what Delzell considers voter suppression with the state trying to clean its voter rolls but then backing off on the effort? Not to mention Biden’s & Harris’ efforts to ship thousands of illegal aliens into Tennessee in order to brake the law and allow them to be registered to vote. Actually, I would blame the Democrats.
I served as a poll worker for this election. My job was registering the voters in my section of the precinct. We had 21 active volunteers working for over fourteen hours to register less than 200 people and give them their ballots. I personally had a total of 6 voters, one across from me saw 3 during that 14+ hour period.
I have never seen or experienced a voter suppression incident, just massive apathy. Why? If I hadn’t been a volunteer year after year, the only way I would know about anything would be the proliferation of campaign signs. There were questions on the ballot I had never heard of and could not in good conscience vote on! Why was I being asked if a judge should be retained or replaced when I and others had heard NOTHING!
If we want to diminish the apathy, there had better be a serious attempt to inform and educate the voters, or we will have earned the lousy politicians, judges, school board members and immoral laws!
I’m sick and tired of it!
I concur with your observation’s on the ballots. It has always bothered me that no information about the judges is ever presented. These judges can have a detrimental effect on the community like no other. Like wise the right judge, guided by the Constitution, can have a positive and elevating effect for all citizens. It is also helpful to have the pro’s and con’s of proposed propositions. It is vital that the citizenry is well educated on these points.
Col. Rouse, my wife and I were also election workers. I agree with you about the voter’s apathy and the lack of information about the judges. And because voters believed the propaganda that liberal, out-of-state sources funded by PACs who get funds that originated from George Soros and the Walton Foundation a good, proven, true
conservative was defeated by a challenger with no experience and no track record by which to discern between his campaign statements and his true leanings.
But, about educating the voter’s here’s my experience. I set up a virtual program featuring the Tennessee Secretary of State, the man who is responsible for election integrity in Tennessee. He spoke about the voter roles, efforts to prevent illegals from registering to vote, and the election machines, dates for registering, applying for absentee ballots, early voting, and the primary election day were provided to viewers. We sent out emails announcing this virtual program and allowing pre-registration (free), opportunities to pose questions for the Secretary, a single click button to join the meeting to over 57,000 Tennessee citizens. Only 25 actually attended the event. We got very positive comments from those who attended. I suppose the
other 56,975 just didn’t give a da*n (darn).
I agree with you 100%. I tried to find information on the Judges and could not find anything. I voted replace.
Nearly every office in my primary was uncontested. I WILL NOT vote for a RINO just because he is the one candidate for an office in my party primary. Give us a choice, we will vote.
Good point. Maybe a reject box should be added to the ballot?
actually it is. Just write-in NONE QUALIFIED
So the RHINO prevails in the primary election and advances to the General election where s/he is opposed by a Democrat. Which one will you vote for then? Or are you going to be like 93% of Tennesseans and not vote in the General election?
As a recent new resident of Tennessee I must say it is surprising that there was such a low turn out. I am a escapee from the occupied state of California, I can say that voting is the #1 way to protect your freedom. I know that many feel that their vote doesn’t count, but it is vital to maintain your freedom. If you vote at least you have bitching rights. if you don’t even vote, you will lose any hope of keeping your say over your representatives. I do not want Tennessee to go the way of California. BELIEVE ME! You may not believe it but there are a lot of conservative people in Cali. that are still fighting the system there and they are growing. But some of us could no longer survive there. I love Tennessee and have no desire to see it going in the direction of Cali. I registered and voted and hope that the turn out in the future will be better. Thank you all.
One other observation if I may.
I personally prefer paper ballots over voting machines. they are untrustworthy. Nearly all are tied to the CCP. They have been shown to be rather consistently inaccurate. In test after test validity of the count has been shown to be inconsistent, even when fed the same info several times. If I am stepping on toes, oh well, that’s to bad. But I love truth over fantasy every time.
I agree. I called all the way up the food chain from Rutherford County to the Secretary of State and others in charge of elections.
My dad was a poll worker for years.
No one, not one person could tell me where my vote went or how it was counted without saying the machine does it by itself.
The best part was at higher level they all assured me that the voting machines were selected “from the federally approved and tested ones”.
So your federal government controls your right to vote in state elections. And they control the tally. Of course, Lee’s office had no comment.
I tried to find information about voting locations and I couldn’t find any information anywhere.
I watched laziness and complacency destroy the once red state of Colorado in a couple decades. I see the same thing happening here. Only 25 to 30 percent of Tennessee Christians and gun owners vote. The rest should be ashamed! Once it’s gone, you’ll never get it back.
TN should seriously consider making voting less complicated, especially for people who aren’t native Tennesseans. I’ve been here 9 years & it still seems weird to have primaries on Thursdays. I’m in favor of closed primaries held on Tuesdays in the spring & fall. I think some office holders prefer the confusion, because then only the people they know will vote for them, vote. Call me a cynic, but I now realize why TN is always on the list of the top 10 most corrupt states. As a Tennessean, I only want better & good government!
People are so self absorbed and lazy and don’t care watching their country turn into a Socialist third country and rights stripped away one by one.
Yes
Closed Primaries.
The sneaky rinos love and protect open primaries
Yes
“None of these candidates ”
Should be available
When stationed in NV, years ago,”none…” came close to corrupt harry reid in a primary
Yes
Paper ballots
It’s the only secure vote
Scanners can still be employed for quick count
Judges
Yes it’s our obligation to pay attention
How, there’s hardly enough newspapers now, and those that are honest are few and definitely far between (dieing industry)
http://www., after 40 years I hardly ever turn on my laptop anymore
Are we supposed to individually tromp into city everyday to review court and case records.
“Replace” everytime
Mailers getting more expensive every day
My local polling location did not hv one single sign out for early voting
Other issues were apparent.
Statist want voters to be ignorant of their goals weather it be liberal policies and politicians or kickbacks from land and
under the table business deals
I hope most of us here read the diligent reporting on the candidates by the TC staff.
Thank You
TN has the most apathetic and ignorant voters I’ve ever experienced.
I vote in every election, even though I know they are rigged by criminals like Jon Duda. If I don’t like any of the choices, I write in “no thanks”, as I did several times in the most recent primary.
I am a recent immigrant from a good-for-nothing blue state in the Northeast and landed in Meigs County, a county without any zoning laws at all and run by low-IQ elected officials. And the mayor is a DemocRAT?! I should have done more research. Sigh.