West Tennesseans show up for record-breaking early voting

JACKSON, Tenn. — On the fifth day of early voting, lines still stretched around the building at the Madison County Election Commission.

Some voters were there as early as 5:30 in the morning, waiting hours to cast their votes for the 2020 Presidential Election.

WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News reporter Julia Ewoldt asked voters why they were so willing to brave the wait.

“What is pushing you to get out and vote early this election season?”

“I just didn’t want to stand in longer lines on election day, and I didn’t send in for a mail-in,” said voter John Koons.

“Have you sat out here like this in years past?”

“I have once or twice,” said Reba Fisher. “I usually come and make sure I vote.”

“This is the time you were able to get out here and do it?”

“We came out last week, but it was worse than this, so we just waited,” said Evelyn Kipp.

“Why did you want to get out here and wait in line to early vote?”

“It’s important,” said Charles Douglass. “There’s a lot of people who made this possible for me, and I don’t want to let them down.”

But if you think lines like this are specific to Madison County, think again. We spoke with election commissioners from all over West Tennessee, who said it looked like this at their polling places as well.

Chester County Elections said they’ve already seen almost 19% of all registered voters come through the polls.

Gibson County has seen almost 17% at their two polling locations.

Hardin County has seen 14%.

“Well we’re just seeing huge numbers,” said Kim Buckley, Madison County’s administrator of elections. “We always do in a presidential election, but I think there must be something special about this one. People are really, really interested in it.”

Buckley said in Madison County, they’re seeing 300 people come through their polls every hour, and sometimes more.

As far as slowing down? There’s a lot of variables.

“August, we saw a big early voting and a lower election day,” Buckley said. “I don’t know. It’s hard to say. We’ll be busy throughout. The presidential election is very important to all of our voters.”

Election day is November 3 — just 15 days away.