The August primary election has several candidates for governor, U.S. Senator, and other offices battling it out for your vote. But as early voting locations have now opened statewide, Tennessee is facing another battle: just getting people to register to vote.
A study, carried out by the Pew Charitable Trusts, shows only 74 percent of the voting age population in Tennessee was registered to vote in the midterm elections four years ago. Only 10 states in the country had a rate worse than that.
Even worse was the state's voter turnout in the last midterm elections. It was dead last in the country at just more than 28 percent.
But NewsChannel 5 political analyst Pat Nolan says the competitiveness of some of the races this year, could bring more people to the polls on election day.
"All those races, if they're hot enough, like if the Republican governors race is right now, it tends to turn more people out," Nolan said.
