Early voting tops state records

First two days see more than 272,000 cast ballots

Voters mobbed polls during early voting across the state, with some passionately backing candidates and others just wanting the election to be over already.

Record-breaking days of early voting in Tennessee brought 272,308 votes Wednesday and Thursday, including absentee ballots, but slowed as rain hit parts of the state on Friday.

Despite a cool misty morning, voting remained steady at the Halls voting location in North Knox County, where a rainslick parking lot spattered with fallen leaves welcomed voters.

In the first hour Friday, 200 people had already voted in this conservative area of Knox County.

One of them was William Estep, 37, who said he supports Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on immigration issues. He went to vote early with his wife, which fit around their work shifts. She came wearing medical scrubs.

“All in timing, man,” he said. “Not everybody has a chance, with work schedules, so early voting is critical.”

At the Downtown West polling place in West Knoxville, voter Alyssa Maddox was ready to be done with the “polarized” election season. She voted around a lunch break and backed Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. She was happy to have voted and to be done.

“I feel like it’s been the nastiest campaign I can remember,” she said. “It’s been really childish.”

Turnout statewide

On day one of early voting in Shelby County, 14,470 people went to the polls, a positive sign of things to come, said Robert Meyers, chairman of the Shelby County Election Commission.

“It’s a very good turnout and it puts us on pace to have more than 200,000 early voters. We’ll have to see if that pace keeps up,” Meyers said.

Billie Bradford, 74, lives in Shelby Forest in North Shelby County and wanted to early vote at the Baker Community Center in nearby Millington, Tenn. Early voting is easier and helps her beat the crowds.

But on the second day of early voting, she was out of luck. After peeking at a line of more than 50 people, Bradford opted to wait for another day.

“Oh, these people turn out,” said Bradford, who said she plans to write in an undisclosed person for president.

The Shelby County Election Commission expects another 100,000 to cast ballots on Election Day, Meyers said. There are more than 567,000 registered voters in Shelby County, Mey-

ers said, where voters logged similar early voting numbers in 2012 He said there have been no major complications there, which was reflected by a state spokesman.

“Our staff has been assisting with minor issues and questions as they pop up,” Adam Ghassemi, spokesman for Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, wrote in an email.

Early voting in Nashville was up significantly over the first two days with 27,046 people casting ballots in Davidson County, a 16.9 percent increase over the same time from 2012.

Long lines were a common sight Wednesday at Nashville’s 12 early voting locations. And though Trump has called the election process “rigged,” Nashville officials stressed that the proper safeguards are in place.

Officials have said the mechanics of voting are also up to par in Knox County, where 19,583 people cast ballots in the first two days of early voting, far more than the 13,369 that voted in 2012.

Avoiding trouble

Victor Agreda, a 43year-old Fountain City resident, said early voting helps him avoid long Election Day lines. He agreed that it allows him to put the rhetoric of the election behind him, and said it means he can avoid any trouble on Election Day.

“We have a presidential candidate that has suggested that the election is rigged somehow, and his campaign has for many months tried to encourage people to sign up to go monitor (polls) or whatever,” Agreda said. “I feel like that’s dangerous, to instigate that sort of thing.”

Poll watchers are common, according to election officials, and there haven’t been any uptick in requests in Knox County, according to elections administrator Cliff Rodgers. Knox County Republicans will have poll watchers, though Democrats have said they don’t plan to have any. The League of Women Voters chapter also requests to have poll watchers in some locations, Rodgers said.

Even so, Agreda said he’ll go vote early to avoid any Election Day hassles.

“The idea that someone might try to take the law into their own hands,” he said, “that concerns me a little bit.”

Trump’s comments about a system being rigged bother him.

“It’s unprecedented to have a major party candidate say to go physically monitor,” Agreda said, “because he’s claiming that the entire system is rigged.”

Others want to vote to make sure they get on record early.

Richardson, 56, from East Memphis, is another Clinton voter who prefers to vote early and avoid the Election Day “madhouse.”

“I have to make sure my vote counts,” Richardson said. “Anything can happen to me in between now and Nov. 8. I need to make sure I go on record with my vote.”

Regardless of the reason, Rodgers said that early voting is the ideal way for any voter, anywhere. As long as they’re in the county where they’re registered, people can vote at any polling location, but only during early voting. On Election Day, voters must go to their precinct to vote.

And that can get people turned around if they wait until Nov. 8 and go to the wrong polling location. It costs time for voters, and for election commission staff. Polling location questions become a problem on Election Day, Rodgers said, “when every line is lit up ... with people who don’t have a clue.”

Early voting is just convenient, he said.

“Everybody voting early is part of the solution,” Rodgers said.

Early voting runs through Nov. 3 in Tennessee. Election Day is Nov. 8.

Linda A. Moore in Memphis, Joey Garrison in Nashville and USA TODAY contributed to this story.