Early voting statistics are in, and the number of people who cast their ballots early in the 2018 elections is up significantly compared to 2014.
Statewide, the number of early voters increased by 62,000 (11 percent) in 2018 compared to four years ago according to the Tennessee Secretary of State's Division of Elections.
Knox County had the third-highest early voter turnout in Tennessee behind Shelby and Davidson County, seeing close to a 25 percent total increase in early votes with more than 45,500 people casting early ballots. In comparison, roughly 36,500 people in Knox County cast an early ballot in 2014.
Hancock County had the most significant percentage drop in early voters in the state with less than half the turnout compared to 2014. 570 people cast an early ballot this year compared to 1,270 four years ago.
Interestingly, 51 of Tennessee 95 counties had lower voter turnout compared to 2014. However, many counties in East Tennessee such as Knox, Loudon, Blount and Jefferson counties saw significant increases, and a few populous counties around the Nashville area had large gains this year to make up the difference.
Davidson County in the Greater Nashville area made up a sizable portion of those gains, seeing a large increase in both Democrats and Republicans turning up to the polls early this year. The county nearly doubled the amount of early votes it had compared to four years ago with a total of 58,000 early votes this year.
When breaking down the number of Republican and Democratic voters, both saw a significant increase in early votes. Roughly 44,000 more Republicans (+12.4 percent) and 46,000 more Democrats (+27.8 percent) voted early this year across the state.
For Knox County, the number of early Republican voters increased by roughly 7.5 percent from nearly 30,000 in 2014 to 32,100 in 2018. In contrast, the number of early Democratic voters in Knox County more than doubled from 6,299 in 2014 to 13,297 this year.
Republican voters made up the vast majority of those who voted early in Knox County, representing roughly 70 percent of all early votes cast this year. Republicans also made up 63.5 percent of all early votes cast across Tennessee in 2018 -- which is close to the same percentage of early voters in 2014 where nearly 63 percent were Republican.
You can see the full breakdown of this year's statistics from the Tennessee Secretary of State's Division of Elections below: