Consistently more early voters in Rutherford County have chosen the Republican ballot over the Democratic ballot during the run-up to the Aug. 7 election, figures from the Tennessee Department of State show.
By the close of early voting on Aug. 2, 2014, 13,333 early voters in Rutherford County had filled out Republican ballots compared to only 3,634 who had filled out Democratic ballots. The daily median for Republicans ballots cast during the period was 968 compared to 271 for Democratic ballots.
Rutherford early voting totals, by day and ballot chosen
Tennessee primary elections are not closed, meaning that it is at least technically possible to vote in a party’s primary without actually belonging to the party. According to state law, a registered voter can vote in a party’s primary if the voter is a member and affiliate of the party or, at the time of voting, “declares allegiance to the political party in whose primary the voter seeks to vote and states that the voter intends to affiliate with that party.” It is possible to challenge whether a voter meets these qualifications, but such challenges are highly unusual.
Rutherford County’s Republican primary ballot featured contested races for governor; U.S. Senate; the 4th District of the U.S. House of Representatives; the 37th, 48th, and 49th districts of the Tennessee House of Representatives; and three state executive committee seats. The Democratic primary featured substantially less drama, with contested races only for governor, U.S. Senate, and three state executive committee seats.
For all their numbers, the county’s 17,514 early voters made up just over 11 percent of the 152,790 Rutherford County registered voters tallied by the Tennessee Secretary of State.
— By Ken Blake, editor, The Data Reporter