Lott speaks on local elections

Lori Lott has been the administrator of elections for Madison County for about two-and-a-half years, and she spoke at the Old Hickory Rotary Club’s meeting on Monday to let members know how things are going with local elections.

Since returning to Madison County, Lott, who worked on former administrator Kim Buckley’s staff for a few years before administrating in Crockett County for a few years, Lott oversaw three elections in 2022 – local primary in May, local general and state primary in August and state general in November – and two in 2023 – Jackson municipal elections in May and the mayor runoff in June.

Three more elections are on the horizon in 2024 – a similar schedule to 2022’s except it will be a Presidential and local primaries in March with the state primary and local general in August before the Presidential general election in November.

In addition to the Presidential election next year, Marsha Blackburn’s seat in the United States Senate will be up for election.

“Next year will be an important year with so much going on, and preparation for that will start well in advance of the primaries in March,” Lott said. “They’ve already started.”

Lott also confirmed that both local parties have officially called for primaries in March. Five school board seats are up for election – four seats are scheduled already to be up for election and the seat recently vacated by Scott Gatlin will be up for a two-year term as well. An unexpired term for constable and county commissioner will also be up for two-year terms.

After discussing how important 2024 will be, Lott fielded questions from the crowd, most of which centered on the low voter turnout for the recent city elections.

Apathy and ignorance were the two biggest reasons that took the blame during the discussion before Lott was asked what citizens could do to help the situation.

“We always need volunteers to work test machines, work the precincts on election day, help with early voting,” Lott said. “So anyone that wants to volunteer to help with anything, we’ll take it.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news