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Keep us strong. You power public media.Donate todayTuesday, August 4, 2026Good morning! 
Tennessee’s primary election is Thursday, and more than half a million people have already voted.
Tennessee’s early voting process gives registered voters weeks to head to the polls, and 635,319 people did just that before early voting closed Saturday. That official total is from the Tennessee Secretary of State.
Political scientists — like a lot of other scientists — use certain hard numbers to get insight into questions that are harder to answer. How excited are people for the 2026 election? An objective answer may be impossible. But how many more people voted early compared to the last similar election? That is straightforward.
You want to compare turnout during a primary where the race for president wasn’t on the ballot, since that tends to bring more people out. So 2022.
Next to that primary, early voting for this year was up 32%.
Let’s take a look at why that might be.
WHAT TO KNOW
Here’s a fun fact from behind the curtain. We regularly air soundbites of voters at their polling places, talking about their perspective on the issues. We call it voter vox.
The editors send reporters out across the region, especially during early voting, to get it. They also go on election day.
Here are some snippets from this year’s voter vox on why they chose to vote early:
• “The convenience of the location. It’s safe and accessible. I do have some mobility issues, and I think it’s important to get out early so that the numbers are counted.”
• “I early voted because I knew I was going to get busy, and I knew how important voting would be, and I wanted to make sure that my voice was heard.”
• “The only thing that we can do as a population is vote, and now they’re trying to restrict and control how we do vote, and I’m not happy with that.”
That last quote refers to Tennessee lawmakers changing the Congressional maps in the middle of the decade, with no public input, over the span of a few days.
That came up a lot.
• “I’m in this district. But I didn’t know because the district had changed. It’s a confusion.”
• “I’m still in the 5th. They might have gerrymandered, but they didn’t get rid of me… It’s bad because, you know, they split Memphis up. They also split Maury County up, you know, and some other counties. So that just lacks — that makes for less cohesion in a community.”
• “(The new district) spreads out from Memphis to Columbia, and that’s — we don’t know anybody there.”
That’s not the end of voter vox for this election. Reporters will be out on Thursday. Maybe you’ll see them at the polls!
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MORE TO KNOW
- Less than a week out from the election, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn released an internal poll that paints a much rosier picture of her lead in the governor’s race than other poll results. The Nashville Banner reports her camp’s numbers show Blackburn testing 17 points ahead of her competitor, U.S. Representative John Rose. That comes just a few days after a different poll found the two neck and neck. The national conservative consulting firm OnMessage released those numbers after interviewing 800 likely Republican voters. About 35% said they were leaning toward Blackburn and 31% said Rose. Not too far behind was self-described Christian Nationalist state lawmaker Monty Fritts.
- Back in May, Blackburn emptied her Senate campaign account, giving the balance of $4.8 million dollars to a pro-school voucher political action committee called Club For Growth. Since then, the Tennessee Lookout reports a closely linked PAC with the same leaders has donated nearly the same amount to her gubernatorial campaign. Under state law, Blackburn can’t directly spend money from her federal campaign on the governor’s race. But Brendan Galvin, the director of Open Secrets, a nonpartisan political spending tracker, says the spending “clearly reads as a workaround.” These political spending groups, while separate, share leaders and are registered to the same address in Washington D.C. Neither Blackburn’s campaign nor Club for Growth has responded to the Lookout’s requests for comment.
- Students at LaVergne High School will return to class next week. But before that happens, the city’s mayor says the district needs to make some major fixes at the school. Mayor Jason Cole shared photos of what looks like mold or mildew buildup and sagging ceiling tiles. He says he’s worried the conditions could pose health risks to students. A spokesperson for Rutherford County schools tells Fox 17 that some level of mildew is not unusual during the summer when moisture can get trapped inside classrooms. They said the tiles had not been tested for mold, but the district is working to replace them and address other maintenance issues before students return.
FROM THIS IS NASHVILLE
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