EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS: GOP sweeps in midterms, county sees close to 60% voter turnout

By ABIGAIL YOUMANS & CORBIN PARMER | The Democrat
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More than half of all registered voters in Brown County showed up to cast their vote last week on Election Day — ultimately rejecting an operating referendum for Brown County Schools and selecting Republican candidates in contested local races.

This year, 6,552 Brown County residents voted, or about 57% of the 11,500 registered voters in the county. Of those voters, 2,400 cast their ballot early — in person at the Salmon Room or by mail — with more than 4,100 showing up to vote in person at their precincts on Nov. 7.

Though voter turnout was high this year, it was a bit less than the last midterm general election in 2018.

In 2018 there were 7,340 ballots cast with 61.41% of registered voters in the county showing up to vote.

In the 2020 presidential election 71% of the 12,622 registered voters in Brown County, or 8,991, actually voted. The only turnout higher than that in recent decades was the 1992 presidential election between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, when turnout was “nearly 75%” according to newspaper archives. However, back then, 75% of Brown County voters was only 6,496 people.

For the 2016 presidential election, turnout was 64%.

Straight ticket voting continues to be a trend in the county with 1,606 voters choosing Republican ballots and 684 pulling Democrat ballots.

A total of 39 provisional ballots were issued. The Brown County Election Board will determine whether or not those votes will count in this year’s election at their meeting on Nov. 18 in the Salmon Room at the County Office Building.

After each election, the county election board examines each provisional ballot individually — along with the reasons poll workers give for why they gave that voter a provisional ballot and not a regular ballot — and the board decides, according to the law, which provisional ballots should count and which cannot.

Last week, election board President Mark Williams, the Republican representative on the board, said he was not surprised at the high percentage of voter turnout, considering the volume of early and absentee voting.

He did not attribute the reason for high turnout to be related to any candidate or issue specifically.

Democrat election board member Kevin Fleming said he was surprised by the high turnout, saying the volume was “highly unusual” for a midterm election.

“We had lots of signs going along during early voting that it was a brisk pace, but it even still exceeded expectations after being forewarned with that,” he said.

 

The Brown County Election and Absentee Voter boards count early ballots in the Salmon Room on Election Day.

Abigail Youmans | The Democrat

As far as one possible reason behind the high turnout, Fleming said there was “a lot of energy in voters” based upon the national political atmosphere including the overturning of Roe v. Wade this summer and the events on Jan. 6 at Capitol Hill.

Another possible local reason for voters coming out to cast their ballot in a midterm election this year was the Brown County Schools operating referendum question on the ballot, Fleming said.

That referendum was rejected with 3,027 residents voting against it. Another 2,694 residents voted “yes.”

Despite the large number of ballots cast on Election Day, Williams there were few issues counting votes on election night.

All ballots — including those that were cast early — were counted by 8:45 p.m.

“As far as the election board goes, we were particularly conscious of how things went, how the poll workers performed, and in spite of an earlier problem (with the poll books), overall it appears that the functions went very smoothly, much better than in the primary,” Fleming said.

According to the election board members, poll books at two precincts properly identified voters, but would not allow voters to sign on the screen. Until the issue was resolved, poll workers had voters sign their name on a piece of paper.

To ensure confident poll workers and secure election processes, the election board held multiple training sessions to focus on election equipment procedures, and many work sessions held since the primary.

The Brown County Election Board, poll workers and community members met in the Salmon Room on Oct. 6 for the public test of the voting machines and explanation of the process voters will go through when they show up to vote in person, whether early or on Election Day.

There are two tests required by statute, the first was held for the Election Board to test all the voting equipment with ballots that will be used, and the second is required by law to serve as an opportunity for the public to come and ask questions about the voting equipment, and observe it in operation in order to familiarize themselves with it.

The ballots are random samples, with boxes filled in randomly, and to run through all the election equipment to ensure all units are mechanically operating and tabulating everything properly, Williams said after the public test.

Questions were asked from the public regarding the step-by-step procedures, as well as question the security of the equipment.

To ensure voter and poll worker confidence, all poll workers were trained on the equipment and through different hypothetical scenarios that may have arisen on Election Day.

As early voting started in October, Williams said that election security is the highest it has ever been.

‘Phenomenal’ turnout

Last May, 808 early voters cast their ballots early for the primary election. Walk-in voting was more than twice that amount for last week’s election with 1,990 Brown County voters who voted early and in-person at the Salmon Room, Absentee Voter Board member Deb Noe said on Nov. 8.

Another 404 ballots were mailed in early. The highest early voting turnout though was in 2020 when 3,211 ballots were cast ahead of Election Day either by mail or in person.

Noe said many voters cannot make it to their designated precinct between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Election Day. For most voters, she said, the choice to vote early was made because of convenience.

On Election Day the ballots were being organized into stacks of 50 after members checked the signatures on each ballot to ensure they had been signed by an election board member or their proxy before given to a voter, as required by election law.

No ballots had been discovered that were not signed by an election board member. The largest task at hand was scrambling to get enough ballots to precincts on Election Day and checking the large volume of ballots that were cast early, Fleming said.

All ballots cast early and in person along with those that were mailed in were run through the voting machines when polls closed at 6 p.m.

At the polls

On Election Day, Absentee Voter Board member Donna Kelp Lutes made phone calls to precincts to ensure each one had enough ballots. At around 11:15 a.m., Jackson 4 had already distributed 120 ballots and had only 30 left. Once a precinct gets down to 100 ballots, they call the board to request more to be sent.

About two hours before polls closed, election technicians were dispatched to precincts for a second time that day to deliver all the ballots that were on reserve with the exception of a handful for each precinct, in case more needed to be printed.

The clerk’s office ran out of ink for the ballot printer at one point. They even had to start printing more ballots on their ballot machine.

“That’s unheard of,” Clerk Kathy Smith said.

Over at the Hamblen 1 precinct, poll workers reported around noon a strong number of voters coming in since the doors opened at 6 a.m. When the polls opened, a line of voters were waiting outside of Sprunica Baptist Church.

Michelle Havlin was working at the polls and said the location had been “booming” all day, which she said was “very surprising.” Every parking spot was full when the polls opened, she added.

“For it not being a presidential election, it’s up more than normal,” Hamblen 1 Inspector Sharlene Jones Wall said.

Jackson precincts 1 and 2 both were located in Fruitdale Volunteer Fire Department, and reported steady numbers of voters as the day continued. Outside of that precinct, Brown County Sheriff candidate Brad Stogsdill waited to meet people and thank them for voting.

“It’s a very important thing for our county, our nation, our state,” he said about voting.

Stogsdill said he felt very fortunate to run for sheriff unopposed in this election, and described meeting new members of the Brown County community and hearing their concerns with the county government as a highlight of the election season.

“I am looking forward to getting in and keeping this community safe,” he said.

Jackson 2 inspector Duane Parsons said he interacted with many first-time voters, and not just young voters, but older voters who said they never wanted to vote until now.

Despite the large number of voters, Parsons said the day had gone without issue, machines worked well and any questions that arose were answered smoothly.

Kevin Sebastian voted at Fruitdale Volunteer Fire Department, where he is also fire chief. He said the voting process went well and that he votes in every election he can. Out of personal preference, he votes on Election Day, just in case anything happens before then which might sway his vote.

By 5 p.m. at Southern Brown Volunteer Fire Department, a large, end-of-the-workday crowd of voters gathered in the Van Buren precinct. Poll workers there cheered for a new voter as she presented her ID.

Jacob Moore was inspector at the location and said the crowd had been very steady all day. At 5 p.m., the machine counted 543 votes, and at least 20 people were waiting in line. By the times the poll closed at 6 p.m., 594 voters had cast their ballot at the precinct.

Brown County Middle School Principal Gavin Steele was outside of the school volunteering with the Brown County Schools Political Action Committee’s “Vote YES” campaign for the district’s operating referendum. He greeted voters as they entered and informed them about the proposed operating referendum question on the ballot.

Steele also said the day had gone well, with the only real problem he had overheard was the precinct running out of “I Voted Today” stickers.

Kevin McCracken also stood outside with a sign, greeting voters as they entered. McCracken ran for the Dist. 2 seat on Brown County School Board. He said the day had been going well, full of good conversation with old acquaintances, but that it was also exhausting.

“I have a lot of respect for people that run for office because it is a lot of work,” he said.

Voter turnout per precinct

Hamblen 1: 369 out of 1,077 voters (34%)

Hamblen 2: 372 out of 1,224 voters (30%)

Hamblen 3: 439 out of 967 voters (45%)

Jackson 1: 340 out of 953 voters (36%)

Jackson 2: 209 out of 607 voters (34%)

Jackson 3: 278 out of 718 voters (39%)

Jackson 4: 244 out of 701 voters (35%)

Van Buren: 594 out of 1,396 voters (43%)

Washington 1: 622 out of 1,729 voters (36%)

Washington 2: 291 out of 956 voters (30%)

Washington 3: 379 out of 1,172 voters (32%)

Stay tuned

More Election Day coverage will follow in next week’s issue, including follow-ups for Brown County Clerk, Nashville Town Council candidates, Brown County School Board and more on the operating referendum question.