A few things to know before voting on Election Day

Thursday is the second Election Day of 2024 in Tennessee with one more to go.

This time, local races will have their general elections along with state primaries.

While the voting precincts in Madison County have been consolidated to 29, there will still be one precinct that will be slightly different than it was in March.

One of the precincts in northwest Madison County cast their vote at Sacred Heart of Jesus High School in March during the Presidential primary.

But since Sacred Heart announced their closing in June, Election Administrator Lori Lott had to figure out where to have that precinct vote.

“Fortunately Grace United Methodist Church is next door, and they’ve graciously allowed us to have a precinct vote in their church lobby,” Lott said. “But when it comes to driving to vote, nothing has changed.

“Those who drive to the precinct will continue to drive into the Sacred Heart parking lot. We’ll have workers there directing them to the church, and they’ll walk in there to vote. Once they’re done, voters will use Grace’s parking lot as the exit and leave that way.”

Here’s a few things to know about voting before you head to the polls:

• Voting hours on Thursday, Aug. 1 are 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.
• Photo identification is required to vote, and voters must sign the form signifying loyalty to one party or another if the voter wants to vote in a party’s primary.
• Once you vote, you’ll be given the traditional “I voted” sticker along with a pen and glove. Lott said a lot of these were leftover from previous elections during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’re simply getting them out of their offices and freeing up that storage space. She said she expects her department to be out of gloves and pens before the end of the election in November.
• As of Wednesday, July 24, a total of 5,143 votes have been cast in Madison County early voting. Republican primary ballots have totaled at 3,593, while 1,486 Democratic ballots have been cast. A total of 64 general election ballots have been cast.
• As of about 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, there had been 4,043 ballots cast in State District 73 and 948 cast in District 80. All of 73 is in Madison County while 80 has about the southern third of Madison County, nearly all of Hardeman County and a significant portion of Haywood County including the town of Brownsville and Stanton.
• For anyone wondering, the most effective election for early voting in Madison County history happened in the 2014. That was the year former Sheriff John Mehr won over former Jackson Police Chief Rick Staples. There were 11,525 total votes cast that year. No. 2 on that list is the 2018 primary election when Tennessee was electing a new Governor, new Senator, new District 73 representative and five new JMCSS Board members. There were 9,556 ballots cast early that year.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news