Election Commission officials check for provisional ballots Tuesday evening after Chester County polls closed. Pictured above are, from left, Secretary of Commission K.B. Doyle, Chairman Steven Morris and Commissioner Sylvia Flowers. Also pictured, a line formed at the Montezuma precinct just before polls closed Tuesday evening. Voter turnout was reportedly steady at precincts across Chester County Tuesday. Commission photo by Holly Roeder, Independent; Montezuma photo submitted by Chester County Election Commission
The Chester County Election Commission reported a significant voter turnout for this election cycle. With 11,284 voters registered in Chester County, 4,678 of those made their way to the polls during midterms.
“There was a lot of interest and excitement about this election,” said Chester County Administrator of Elections Kathy Vest, noting a positive turnout for both early voting and on Election Day across the county.
While coming in just under 50% of local voters, turnout was slightly higher than the 2022 mid-term elections when Bill Lee was on the Governor’s ballot. Chester County reported just shy of 4,500 votes for that race in 2022 whereas the 2026 Governor’s ballot votes tallied 4,642.
For the Governor’s race locally, REP Marsha Blackburn garnered the most votes at 2,683 with DEM Jerry Green next, with 961 votes. Following Green were IND Lauren Pinkston with 522 and IND David Hatley with 428.
Chester County continued to vote predominantly Republican in all other races across the board. For United States Senate REP Bill Hagerty received 3,433 and DEM Marquita Bradshaw received 1,014. REP David Kustoff received 3,463 in the United States House of Representatives District 8 race while DEM Heidi Kuhn received 994. REP Kirk Haston received 3,240 confidence votes for Tennessee House of Representatives District 72.
Regarding the Constitutional Amendment questions on the ballot, the majority of local voters selected “yes” for each option.
A total of 2,692 voters took advantage of Early and Absentee Voting, which is 23.86% of local registered voters. Top early vote bringers in the Governor’s race were REP Marsha Blackburn (1,500), DEM Jerri Green (602), IND Lauren Pinkston (294) and IND David Hatley (245).
All voting results are unofficial and will be certified at a later date. For more detailed election results go to votechestercountytn.gov or govotetn.gov
