Early voting picks up in city election
By Mike Steely
Senior Writer
steelym@knoxfocus.com
Thursday was the halfway mark for early voting for five new Knoxville City Council members and the city sales tax referendum. As of Thursday, 5,112 people have voted with 651 of those coming as absentee or nursing home ballots.
The Downtown West precinct leads the early voting with 1,535 people voting, followed by New Harvest Park with 976 voters. The Expo Center, which opened four days after other precincts began voting, had 605 voters. The City-County Building precinct had 501 votes, Eternal Life Church had 430 votes, and the South Precinct at Meridian Baptist Church had 414 voters.
“We are at the halfway point of early voting, and turnout has been over double what we saw through the first half of early voting for the City Primary. The referendum question seems to be driving a lot of interest, and I think steady turnout will continue all the way through Election Day,” Chris Davis, administrator of the Knox County Election Commission, told The Focus.
Most of the attention went to council races in the Second and Fourth Districts. The overwhelming age range of voters to cast ballots was over 55. Slightly more females voted than males.
Early voting continues until Thursday, October 30, and the General Election is Tuesday, November 4.
