KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Thursday marked Day 2 of early voting and people are still heading to the polls. One of the women working those polls became a citizen more than four decades ago, and she said she loves this time of year.
"I love seeing the crowd," Tobertha Jackson said. "It's like a kid in a candy store. The people come out because this is what we work for. We want people to come out and vote, it doesn't matter that political affiliation, we just want them to come out and vote to exercise that right to vote."
Jackson said she moved to the United States from Liberia in the late 70s. She knew she wanted to get involved with elections because she didn't see the election process growing up in Liberia.
"We were able to get out of Liberia, some of the few who were able to and came to this country and everybody is now a citizen," Jackson said. "While I saw people being elected in Liberia, I didn't know the process until I came to the United States and slowly got involved with the process."
Jackson said on Wednesday, the first day of early voting, at Meridian Baptist Church, more than 1,000 people voted. She expects just as many, if not more on Thursday.
Chris Davis, the Knox County administrator of elections, said Jackson is the exact kind of person he wants on his team.
"She's really invaluable to us," Davis said. "She works early voting. She works Election Day and we're very glad to have her because she's level-headed, works hard, makes good decisions and frankly runs a very good polling place. Her coworkers love her, voters love her, they're out here complimenting her. So obviously she's doing something right."
He said Jackson is a great ambassador for the voting process.
"In countries like the one she came from, they don't take voting for granted because, if you get a chance to vote, it's a really big thing," he said. "And here we take it for granted and I know that she sees that and she imparts that and it's not just her, she imparts that to everybody that she comes in contact with, which is really cool."
Jackson said she recently went back to Liberia to see them vote to compare it to American elections and she noticed Liberians were eager to vote.
"People came all over the country to the city to vote, going through all kinds of treacherous terrain, so to speak, and weather during the rainy season and all that sort of thing to get to the polling location," she said.
She said she wants to encourage Americans to vote because we are lucky to have the freedom to do it.
"It's your voice," Jackson said. "It translates into your vote. Don't sit there and say, well, it doesn't matter, it does matter. That could be the one vote that makes that difference."