Early voting brings high numbers to the polls

JACKSON , Tenn — Wednesday early voting officially began in Tennessee.

The two week window allow voters who can’t wait until November 8 to cast their ballot to do so on their own schedule ahead of time.

By mid-afternoon, Administrator of Elections in Madison County, Kim Buckley said she was pleased with the first day numbers.  “We’ve voted over 1,500 so we’re excited plenty of people are turning out and utilizing early voting,” she said.

By the time poles closed 1,664 votes were cast in person.  The election commission also counted 338 absentee ballots and 170 ballots casts by voters in nursing homes or assisted living facilities.  That brought the total number of first day ballots to 2,172.

Buckley said she and her staff have been preparing for a busy two weeks.

“We were registering people through October 11 but we’ve had a lot of mail come in with that post mark on it, so I actually put the last two voters in at 4:30 yesterday before early voting started,” Buckley said.

Voters said despite a crowd, the process went very quickly.  “It was very simple, very easy. Took me less than two minutes to come in and do this,” Voter Dorothy Steele said.

Steele said she votes early every time.  “Sometimes when you wait until the last minute you might not be able to go on and vote,” she said.

Buckley agrees.  “You just never know what your schedule’s going to be like or what might happen in your life that would prevent your from being able to vote on election day.  So we’re glad to be able to offer this opportunity for the voters,” said Buckley.

As for those who don’t vote at all,  Steele said don’t bother complaining.  “This is where the decisions are made and if we don’t vote then we don’t have a say, so we don’t have any reason to complain,” she declared.