Tennessee’s 2022 voter turnout ranks last
Tennessee had the lowest voter turnout in the nation during the 2022 midterm elections, a study released Thursday by Nashville-based Think Tennessee found.
The state ranked 51st among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., with 38.6% of registered voters (or 31.3% of eligible voters) casting ballots that year, according to the study, which is based on data from an election data lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Nationally, an average of 47.5% of eligible voters cast ballots in 2022, according to the data.
Oregon, Maine and Minnesota led the nation in voter turnout, with more than 60% of voters casting ballots in each state, according to the MIT study.
In 2016, a presidential election year, Tennessee’s voter turnout ranked 49th in the nation, the study shows. In 2018, it had the 44th highest turnout and in 2020 ranked 46th, according to the think tank.
Here are some key takeaways for the 2022 election from the think tank’s report.
1. Turnout may have been low because the ballot wasn’t exciting enough.
In 2022, Tennesseans were facing a ballot with an incumbent governor, and around 54% of state lawmaker candidates were running unopposed, according to the study.
Primary races, on the August ballot, tended to be more competitive than the November general election, the report said.
2. Hamilton County had a higher turnout rate than the state as a whole.
Around 42% of voters in the county cast ballots in 2022, according to Hamilton County Election Commission data.
Loudon County reported the highest turnout at 48.4%, and Hancock County had the lowest at 29.3%, the
study said.
3. Voting was split pretty evenly between early voting and Election Day.
In most previous elections, more people voted early than on Election Day, according to the report. But in 2022, 49.3% of voters cast ballots on Election Day, 48.1% voted early and 2.6% cast absentee ballots.
4. Tennessee also has a lower voter registration rate than the national average.
Nationwide, 84.4% of eligible voters were registered to vote for the 2022 election, according to MIT’s study.
In Tennessee, 79.9% were registered, the study showed. That placed the state at 42nd in the nation.
5. Tennessee rejects registrations at a higher rate than the nation as a whole.
In 2022, 7.4% of voter registration applications in Tennessee were rejected, according to the study. Nationwide, 6.4% are rejected, the study found.
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.