Early voting is well underway for Tennessee’s August second primary election and so far Knox County has over 6,000 early votes.
But a Pew Charitable Trust study from 2016 shows that Tennessee voter turnout in the 2014 midterm elections was the lowest in the country at just 28 percent.
According to Katie Cahill, Associate Director of the University of Tennessee’s Howard J. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, those numbers provide an accurate reflection of the state of voting in Tennessee.
"Tennessee is really underperforming in terms of voter turnout," Cahill said
But Knox County Administrator of Elections Clifford Rodgers said this year the high profile races and the online registration process could encourage people to come out and vote.
"The seats at the top of the ticket drive voters for whatever reason people would rather vote in a governors race, or a senators race or those house of representatives race but this year we've got it all," Rodgers said.
Cahill agrees.
"The easier that you make it for people to vote and to find information, I think that, that's definitely going to have an impact in moving forward," Cahill said.
In the end, the message is still the same.
"You've got your mind made up, you know how you're voting, we want to encourage you to vote," Rodgers said.