MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 1:36 pm

Only two other counties have had more early voters than Rutherford.

Only Davidson and Shelby counties come in ahead of Rutherford with more than 150,000 and 200,000 votes cast respectively.

As of Wednesday night, 54,154 Rutherford countians had showed up at the polls to cast an early ballot in the November general election with more than 6,000 of those votes coming in Wednesday.

“It seems like daily we’re setting records for daily early voting turnout,” said Hooper Penuel, elections administrator.

He expects an even larger turnout Thursday, the last day of early voting.

“If the records keep getting set during early voting it might be a breeze on Election Day,” Penuel said.

Almost a third of registered voters statewide have jumped at the chance to vote early with nearly 1.3 million ballots cast of 4 million voters across the state.

A similar trend has occurred in Rutheford County with more than a third of the 143,754 voters going to the polls early.

“I expect lines when we close at 8 p.m.,” Penuel said, adding all voters standing in line at 8 p.m. will get to cast a ballot.

Murfreesboro SportsCom, Election Commission Annex, Rutherford County Ag Center, Tennessee Rehabilitation Center in Smyrna and La Vergne Civic Auditorium are open from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday.

The Election Commission office on the Square is open from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday for the last day of early voting.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.