Early voting has closed in Tipton County, and the numbers point to one of the busiest primary turnouts the county has seen in years.<\/p>\n
Through all 14 days of the early voting period for the Aug. 6, 2026, primary, 6,875 Tipton County voters cast ballots \u2014 up 94.6% from the 3,532 who voted early in the 2022 primary and up 36.1% from the 5,053 who voted early in 2018.<\/p>\n
The county’s growth outpaced the statewide trend on both counts. Turnout across all 95 Tennessee counties rose 32.9% over 2022 and just 1.3% over 2018 \u2014 meaning Tipton’s growth over 2018 ranked 10th-highest of any county in the state.<\/p>\n
Of Tipton’s 6,875 early voters, 5,178 requested Republican ballots and 1,593 requested Democratic ballots \u2014 a roughly 75%-to-23% split, with the remaining 104 ballots, about 1.5% of the total, not recorded under either party.<\/p>\n
Republican turnout hit 5,178 \u2014 up 81.6% from 2,852 in 2022 (a gain of 2,326 votes) and up 32.6% from 3,905 in 2018 (a gain of 1,273 votes).<\/p>\n
Democratic turnout reached 1,593 \u2014 up 158.6% from 616 in 2022 (a gain of 977 votes) and up 45.2% from 1,097 in 2018 (a gain of 496 votes). That percentage growth ranked eighth-best among Tennessee counties compared with 2022, and seventh-best compared with 2018.<\/p>\n
Because Tipton’s Democratic ballot count was smaller in past cycles, the same-size swings produced very different vote totals: Republicans added more than twice as many new early voters this cycle (2,326) as Democrats did (977), even though Democrats grew faster in percentage terms and posted one of the state’s larger Democratic percentage gains.<\/p>\n
Daily figures show Tipton’s early voting period opened fast, cooled off and then closed with a flourish. The first day, Friday, July 17, produced the highest single-day turnout of the period: 768 voters, including 605 Republican and 151 Democratic ballots. The slowest days were the first two Saturdays of the window, July 18 and July 25, which drew just 254 and 241 voters, respectively. Turnout climbed back into the 400s and 500s on most weekdays after that, and the final two days, July 31 and Aug. 1, brought 604 and 560 voters \u2014 including a rebound to 560 on the closing Saturday, more than double the turnout recorded on the two Saturdays before it.<\/p>\n
Statewide, early voting also outpaced recent cycles. Tennessee counties combined for 635,319 early votes through 14 days, up 32.9% over 2022 and up 1.3% over 2018. Sixty-six of 95 counties were running ahead of their 2022 pace, and 33 were ahead of 2018 \u2014 Tipton among them on both counts. Statewide Republican turnout reached 396,677, up 35.1% over 2022 and roughly flat against 2018, while Democratic turnout reached 225,293, up 45.2% over 2022 and 6.9% over 2018.<\/p>\n
With early voting now final, all eyes turn to Election Day itself \u2014 Thursday, Aug. 6. Based on the early numbers, Tipton County is on pace for higher overall primary turnout than either 2022 or 2018. Both parties saw turnout increase compared with the last two cycles: Republicans by a wider margin in raw votes, Democrats by a wider margin in percentage terms. Election officials will now shift focus to Election Day turnout, which will determine whether 2026 becomes the county’s highest-turnout primary of the past three cycles.<\/p>\n
Source: Tennessee Division of Elections early voting reports, “2026 vs. 2022” and “2026 vs. 2018” county comparisons, and Tipton County daily early\/absentee voting totals through Day 14 (Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026). Totals include in-person early voters, absentee by-mail ballots and voters at licensed facilities. Data last updated Monday, Aug. 3, 2<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Early voting has closed in Tipton County, and the numbers point to one of the busiest primary turnouts the county has seen in years. Through all 14 days of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[78,79],"tags":[149,150,151,152,153,154,155,35,156],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections","category-local-politics","tag-2026-primary-election","tag-aug-6-primary","tag-democratic-party","tag-early-voting","tag-election-day","tag-republican-party","tag-tennessee-elections","tag-tipton-county","tag-voter-turnout"],"yoast_head":"\n