Early voting is in progress at this time--now through this Saturday (7/27/2024). Election Day is next week, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. Rutherford County Election Administrator Alan Farley explained:
- There are 9 early voting locations in Rutherford County, and approximately 80 voting machines are used there.
- There are 30 locations used on election day and around 200 voting machines are used.
- Approximately 280 voting machines represent an investment of $1.7-million. They can be used over a period of time, up until new software makes them obolete.
- There are only 7 of Tennessee's 90 counties that allow registered voters to cast ballots at any VOTING CENTER in the county for "early voting" or on "election day". Rutherford County was the first, and created the program through a pilot project that began in 2017. Williamson, Wilson and Monroe counties joined in 2019; Weakley in 2021; and in 2023 Henry county offered this service to voters.
- Farley explained that the expense of offering this service is usually absorbed by "savings". For example, Rutherford County now uses fewer polling locations, because we eliminated "low use" election centers. Some only had 4-10 voters, but required 15 persons to operate the facility. Those could be combined with other low population areas and have one center service the population.
