Tennessee Primary Saw Historically Low Voter Turnout

But also saw more candidates running in partisan primaries

An analysis of the August primary elections by a nonpartisan, nonprofit group found that this year's elections saw historically low voter turnout.

Think Tennessee, a nonprofit focused on providing actionable data for Tennessee policymakers, reported its findings in a recent blog post.

Among the key findings:

• Historically low voter turnout - Only about 13.9% of registered voters cast ballots this election, which is 10.6 percentage points below 2020 (24.5%).
• More candidates ran in state races - Significantly more state legislative seats had both Republican and Democratic parties fielding candidates (62.6% of seats) than in 2022 (37.9% of seats). As a result, we can expect more contested races in November.
• Every vote matters - Three of the eight primary races to fill open seats in the state legislature came down to fewer than 200 votes.

The group is encouraging Tennesseans to register to vote and to turnout for the November general election. The deadline to register to vote for the elections (President, U.S. Senate, Congress, and state legislative races) is October 7th.

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