MEMPHIS, Tenn —
Ask Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett what exit on I-40 has the best gas station/convenience store. Ask him what exit has the best restaurants. He can even tell you how to get to the Trout fishing farm in Bucksnort.
Tre Hargett has been to seventy-seven counties so far to check on voting. He still has some traveling to do, and every place he’s been he’s run into the same thing. Voters. Lots of voters.
“During a Presidential year,” he says, “...turnout is high. Normally it’s over 60 percent...in some counties seventy percent of the overall turnout happens during early voting. So, you know, in many ways when we see the early voting numbers come on election night, we will have a pretty good indication of how the state will go.”
Secretary Hargett says he’s seen maybe five or six people not wearing a mask in the polls he’s visited.
On election night, his attention will turn to the counting of the votes. “The National Guard is helping us with cyber security issues,” he says. “You won’t see a National Guard presence at our polling stations. In fact, you’re not going to see law enforcement. I feel really good about our polling locations across the state.”
He is making no guarantees as to when voters will get results, saying “Our role is to make sure that every vote is counted. And we want to make sure it’s done accurately. Given a choice between accurate and fast, we are going to pick accurate every time.”
Early voting continues through most of next week. Election Day is November 3rd.