Record turnout
Nearly 51% of county’s voters cast ballots early
People wait in line to vote in the gym at Andersonville Elementary School shortly after the doors opened at 9 a.m. Tuesday for the general election to decide the next U.S. president. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
That’s nearly 51 percent of the voters casting ballots before yesterday, the actual 2024 general election day.
Of that total, there were 25,888 people who turned out for in-person voting at the three polling places during the Oct. 16-31 early-voting period.
Through Monday, 219 had voted early voted in nursing homes, and there had been 1,187 mail-in ballots received, according to the Election Commission’s website, acelection.com.
In the Norris polling place, 5,791 people voted in person; in Clinton, the total was 8,439; and in Oak Ridge, it was 11,658.
Election officials were predicting that a heavy early-voting turnout could help lessen the wait times for live voting on Tuesday, considering that only about 70% of Anderson County’s total number of registered voters turned out for the 2020 presidential election.
Voters were out in force as the polls opened at 9 a.m. Tuesday, though, and Anderson County Elections Administrator Mark Stephens said earlier that the total could hit 80% of registered voters this year.
“We’re looking at a record both for early voting and for overall turnout this year,” Stephens told The Courier News last week. “We’ll probably see 10-12,000 people vote on election day.
“But we want as many as possible to vote early,” he said. “It’s more convenient.”
Because election day was also press day for The Courier News, the list of winning candidates and the vote totals will not be published in our print edition until next Wednesday.
At the top of the ballot was the U.S. presidential election, where there are multiple candidates running.
But the ballot also included some Tennessee statewide races, along with municipal elections in Clinton, Oak Ridge, Norris, Oliver Springs and Rocky Top.