KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — In Knox County, voter turnout was at an all-time high. More than 221,000 people cast ballots in the 2020 general election.
That's about 72% of all registered voters in the county.
"We were able to vote a record number of people and we did so safely," Knox County Elections Administrator Chris Davis said. "We were very pleased."
Despite the record turnout, the Knox County Election Commission had tallied all of its votes by roughly 11 p.m.
"We just had a plan and the plan worked," said Davis. "I'm thankful that we're in a state where the laws allowed us to start counting those ballots as soon as the polls opened."
How fast a county or state counts ballots largely depends on the election laws in place. For example, Tennessee election rules state absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day.
But 22 other states and Washington D.C. will count ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day, according to CNN. The exact deadlines vary by state.
Some states must wait until the close of polls on Election Day to begin counting absentee ballots. In Alaska, NPR News reported counting of mail-in ballots begins a week after Election Day.
Tennessee requires election officials to wait until Election Day to begin counting but lets them begin as soon as the polls open.
Finally, the sheer volume of mail-in ballots can affect how quickly they are counted. In Knox County, election officials were prepared to handle between 40,000 - 50,000 absentee ballots.
But in the end, only 20,000 voters — or about 9% — used that option. Part of that is because only certain voters are eligible to vote absentee.
"We went and got another facility, hired a lot more staff than we would normally hire, had a lot more ballots printed than we would normally utilize and envelopes and ink and everything else you need," Davis said. "We just kind of worked backward with a timeline and then even then a lot of it was just guesswork."
Davis said they were able to open and scan all the absentee ballots by about 7 p.m. Those were some of the first results released once Knox County voters finished casting their ballots.
"It was a very good day. No major incidents, health-related or otherwise," Davis said. "Overall, we were very pleased."