But go ahead and walk us through the process.

Absolutely.

Well, every voter, number one, of course, obviously needs to be registered.

And there was a registration deadline of 30 days before the election.

But I will tell you, we've got about 274,000 and change voters in Knox County.

And so voters, when they show up at their desired location, and of course, during early voting, you can go to any one of the locations in your county, no matter what county you're in.

If you're not registered in Knox, say you're registered in Blount, you can go to any one of the Blount County locations.

Who is your head of technology? Who is in charge of all of the technology and databases and stuff for you?

But go ahead and walk us through the process.

Absolutely.

Well, every voter, number one, of course, obviously needs to be registered.

And there was a registration deadline of 30 days before the election.

But I will tell you, we've got about 274,000 and change voters in Knox County.

And so voters, when they show up at their desired location, and of course, during early voting, you can go to any one of the locations in your county, no matter what county you're in.

If you're not registered in Knox, say you're registered in Blount, you can go to any one of the Blount County locations.

Who is your head of technology? Who is in charge of all of the technology and databases and stuff for you?

Can we go ahead and touch on that now? Are there new locations?

There are, yeah.

There's a couple that are, I'll call them new.

One is brand new.

It's over in East Knoxville.

It's the Payne Avenue Missionary Baptist Church, and it kind of replaced what used to be the Love Kitchen or Eternal Life.

It's essentially the voting spot for East Knoxville, and it's been great so far.

And is it still pretty much downtown west still remaining the busiest location, if you can call it

Can we go ahead and touch on that now? Are there new locations?

There are, yeah.

There's a couple that are, I'll call them new.

One is brand new.

It's over in East Knoxville.

It's the Payne Avenue Missionary Baptist Church, and it kind of replaced what used to be the Love Kitchen or Eternal Life.

It's essentially the voting spot for East Knoxville, and it's been great so far.

And is it still pretty much downtown west still remaining the busiest location, if you can call it

How goes it?

It has been crazy.

It's been busy.

It is not quite up to a presidential election par in terms of turnout, but it's much higher than, uh, either election we've seen thus far this year.

We're up over 4,400, uh, for the day, and we've still got, what, three, three-plus hours to go.

So I'd say we'll end up around 6,000 for the day, and that's a, that's a, you know, it's a big, big day for a midterm.

So we're, we're, um, we're looking at good turnout, good weather.

All right, let's talk about how to vote and [coughs] excuse me, voter ID, and take me through the mechanics.

How goes it?

It has been crazy.

It's been busy.

It is not quite up to a presidential election par in terms of turnout, but it's much higher than either election we've seen thus far this year.

We're up over 4,400 for the day, and we've still got, what, three plus hours to go.

So I'd say we'll end up around 6,000 for the day.

And that's a big, big day for a midterm.

right, let's talk about how to vote and, excuse me, voter ID and take me through the mechanics.

What was the split there?

Absolutely.

Well, it's right at 60% Republican ballot pulled, right at 38% and change Democratic ballot pulled, and then a little over 1% of your voters, one out of every 100, give or take, is choosing a general only, which means they only get that county general ballot.

But let me tell all your voters who have not voted, who I know are anxious for election day, it doesn't matter which primary you choose, you still get the county general, whether you pick a Republican primary or you pick a Democratic primary, you get that county general ballot.

So you get to vote for mayor, sheriff, county commission, school board, all those fee offices.

If you're in the town of Farragut, even if you choose a Republican or a Democratic primary ballot, you still get those races for mayor and for alderman.

So I think we've gotten that question a lot, just particularly today.

Get us ready for Election Day, which this time will be on a Thursday.

What was the split there?

Absolutely.

Well, it's right at 60% Republican.

ballot pulled right at 38 and change democratic ballot pulled and then a little over one percent of your voters you know one out of every hundred give or take is choosing a general only which means they only get that county general ballot but let me tell all your voters who have not voted who i know are anxious for election day it doesn't matter which primary you choose you still get the county general, whether you pick a Republican primary or you pick a Democratic primary, you get that county general ballot.

So you get to vote for mayor, sheriff, county commission, school board, all those fee offices.

If you're in the town of Farragut, even if you choose a Republican or a Democratic primary ballot, you still get those races for mayor and for alderman.

So I think we've gotten that question a lot, just particularly today.

Get us ready for Election Day, which this time will be on a Thursday.

[laughs]

Uh, no, I, I do wanna...

Uh, let me, let me first say this, and, and it...

I say this every election, but I'm...

Uh, the longer I do this job, the uglier that I see people sometimes act towards our election officials.

I've just gotta say thank you to all those officials.

And I'm not just talking in Knox County.

I, I didn't vote early, and I, I do- I haven't voted often," or, "I've never voted before." What should they expect when they get to a polling place?

Do you know that number or how many different elections there are or things you're voting on?

Yeah, I can tell you that all told, like on a Knox County ballot, there are 46 contests.

Now, a lot of those obviously have no challenger, but then, you know, you have a handful that have, like, if you're on the Democratic ballot and you're running for governor, there's five people.

If you're Democratic ballot, you're running for Senate, there's five people.

So, you know, there's easily... 60, 70-plus people on your ballot.

But, you know, even though there's 46 races, your citizens are only going to vote on 24 to 27 of them, depending on where they live, because obviously there's a lot of things that – there's a Democrat and Republican ballot.

And so, you know, obviously you only pick one of those.

So how many more days do we have on early voting?

How many people are running for office today? in this current election thing do you know that number or how many different elections there are or things you're voting on

yeah i can tell you that all told in like on a knox county ballot there are 46 contests now a lot of those a lot of those obviously have uh no challenger but then you know you have a handful that have like your your if you're a if you're on the democratic ballot and you're running for governor there's five people if you're a democratic ballot you're running for senate there's five people so you know there's easily 60, 70 plus people on your ballot.

But, you know, even though there's 46 races, your citizens are only going to vote on 24 to 27 of them, depending on where they live, because obviously there's a lot of things that there's a Democrat and Republican ballot.

And so, you know, obviously you only pick one of those.

And so so, yeah, there's a lot that I think that's probably the that's probably the biggest The complaint I'm hearing, if there is one out there, Bob, so far, is that the ballot is just so long and a lot of these races, you know, obviously we've ever, I mean, raise your hand if you've not heard about mayor and sheriff and governor and seen those ads everywhere.

But, you know, there's a lot of other races that are kind of down ballot that.

A lot of people have not heard about it, so I think that's been a big challenge for voters, but obviously not a huge challenge because turnout's been pretty good.

So how many more days do we have on early voting?

Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

Well, number one, I hope that they have taken a look at a sample ballot to see what's on the ballot.

But if they haven't, we have one posted prominently at every polling place, so folks can take a last-second glance at the ballot and see who's on it.

But folks, they can bring their phone in for text or informational purposes.

If you've got it written down or texted down or you want to look up something on the Internet, you can do that.

It's just that Remember that the state of Tennessee does not allow taking pictures or video or talking on the phone in the polling place.

But you can bring your phone in to get information off of it.

I mean, is there anything you need people to pay special attention to?

Let's start with what's on the ballot starting tomorrow.

Well, first off, thank you.

You're always generous with your time, Halloran, and it's always good to talk to you.

So tomorrow, starting tomorrow, we're going to have a Republican primary, a Democratic primary, a county general, no matter if you pick a primary or not, and if you live in Farragut, a town of Farragut election.

So there's a lot on this ballot, Halloran.

You'll remember when you voted back in May, you voted for somewhere between 11 and 13 races.

If anybody, if people pull the ballot starting tomorrow, they're going to vote between 24 and 27 races.

When someone shows up at an early voting location tomorrow, what's the voting process?

And if so, or maybe you're just going to wait for the reports, what are you going to be looking for?

Well, ultimately, I mean, I guess I'm like everyone else.

I'm looking at the actual resolution of it.

I'm not particularly interested in the details and perhaps the arguments that the individuals may make.

You know, from my perspective, the Election Commission, just to be clear for all your listeners, when we conduct a primary election, any election commission conducts a primary election, we're doing it for the parties.

So we actually hold the election for the Republican Party.

We hold the election for the Democratic Party.

What happens then?

And if so, or maybe you're just going to wait for the reports, what are you going to be looking for?

Well, ultimately, I mean, I guess I'm like everyone else.

I'm looking at the actual resolution of it.

I'm not particularly interested in the details and perhaps the arguments that the individuals may make.

You know, from my perspective, the election commission, just to be clear for all your listeners, when we conduct a primary election, any election commission conducts a primary election, we're doing it for the parties.

So we actually hold the party, you know, the election for the Republican Party, we hold the election for the Democratic Party.

And ultimately, if there's a contest of election like this, it goes before the party's executive committee.

What happens then?