The World According to Oatney

White Pine election notes

As a few readers might know, I go to coffee every morning at the Sanitary Drug Store here in White Pine. The men who meet for coffee there Monday through Saturday are some of our community's most seasoned and active citizens. They are members of the local Lions Club, the American Legion, the Masonic Lodge, the Knights of Columbus, or other civic or fraternal organizations. A few have been town Aldermen in the past and may run again-one of us is considering a first run for Alderman in 2008...somehow I'll bet you can guess who that might be. One of the regulars is Alderman Mickey Smith, who is up for re-election today-he wasn't at coffee this morning and I suspect that this is because he may be working the polls over at White Pine Elementary.

After I left morning coffee, I took a few minutes to stroll around town. I must not have been the only person who did not vote early because I could not or would not get all the way to Dandridge. I noticed hand-written signs on several of our local businesses-"Gone to vote, be back later," or "voting, will return in a few minutes." Based on these observations, I am gleaning that turnout today will be very high. I expect a line when I cast my ballot around 3:30pm Eastern time today.

Even among the seasoned citizens at the Sanitary Drug, there was some confusion about when the polls open. Several of the guys said the polls in Jefferson County didn't open until nine this morning and they left the drug store a few minutes earlier than usual to go vote. Another group of us tried to inform the second group that the polls opened an hour earlier than they were saying and that they were already open.

Make note of this for future Statewide elections: If you are qualified to vote in Tennessee and you live in the Central Time Zone, your polls are open from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. If you live in the Eastern Time Zone, polls in your county are open from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M.

Labels: Elections

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 9:59 AM