Low turnout in House District 95 early voting

Only 2,535 people cast ballots in early voting on choosing a successor to former state Rep. Mark Lovell, Shelby County Election Administrator Linda Phillips tells the Commercial Appeal. That’s 4.9 percent of registered voters in House District 95.

Of those voting early, 2,313 voted in the Republican primary and just 222 in the Democratic primary.

“Typically, two-thirds of our voters vote early. So we’ll be lucky if we get to eight percent (voter turnout) at this moment,” Phillips said.

…Voters ages 18-27 make up 12.3 percent of registered voters, but only 2.3 percent voted, Phillips said.

Those between 58 and 67 years old represent 19.6 percent of voters, but made up 29.6 percent of early primary voters. And those between 68 and 77 years of age are 10.6 percent of registered voters but were 27.2 percent of early primary voters.

In a district comprised mostly of older and more affluent voters in Colliereville and Germantown, the low early voting numbers are surprising, but there could be other reasons voters didn’t show up at the polls, said Marcus Pohlmann, a political science professor at Rhodes College.

“I think the last presidential election probably has soured even more people to the electoral process,” he said. ” I don’t know that there’s a ton of enthusiasm out there for voting.”

There are seven Republicans, Joseph Crone, Gail Horner, Curtis Loynachan, Missy Marshall, Bill Patton, Frank Uhlhorn and Kevin Vaughan on the primary ballot.

The winner will face Democrat Julie Byrd Ashworth and independents Robert Schutt and Jim Tomasik in the June 15 general election.