BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — As of Monday morning, more than 600,000 people have cast their ballot by voting early for the upcoming presidential election. Tre Hargett, the Tennessee Secretary of State, said early voting makes up about 60% of overall votes in the state.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw this time, 70% of the people who were going to vote in Tennessee take advantage of early voting," he said.
East Tennesseans have specifically been taking advantage of casting their ballots early. Lisa Blackwood, an election officer, said two extra voting machines needed to be brought to Blount County Friday because it was backed up with voters.
For the first time ever, Blount County voters also had the chance to cast their ballots at the Blount County Operations Center located at 1227 McArthur Road — a new early voting location. Blackwood is a precinct officer there and said she has helped during a few other election cycles.
This year's election was the first time she worked a presidential election cycle, and she said the turnout was surprising.
As of Monday morning, more than 12,000 people had voted in Blount County. In Loudon County, 7,205 people voted early. More than 5,400 people voted in Jefferson County and 42,000 voted early in Knox County as of Monday.
Blackwood said with such a high turnout during the early voting period, poll workers are now anticipating crowds on Election Day.
“From what the folks tell me, who have been doing this longer than me, with this turnout we can also expect Election Day to be kind of busy,” said Blackwood.
Election Day is on Nov. 5, when people will need to go to their assigned polling location to cast a ballot.