Wed
May 3 2006
08:39 am

The Knox County Election Commission results overview page is here.

The voting machine totals are here. This includes machine totals from early voting. In races where there were no write-ins, these are pretty much the results.

The final results, once all machine and paper ballots from early voting and election day are counted, will be here. Right now, it's all zeroes because they are still counting paper ballots.

The total number of paper/write-in ballots by precinct is here. If I'm not mistaken, this does not include the early voting paper ballots.

It appears that the total number of paper ballots was 6127 (1849 from early voting and 4278 on election day). There is no breakdown for early voting paper ballots, but on election day there were 1881 Democrat and 2427 Republican paper ballots.

According to JustJohnny's report below, counting was suspended at 2:30 AM and will resume at 1:30 PM today. You probably can't expect any final tally until late in the evening or maybe tomorrow or who knows when. The people at the Knox County Election Commission and their volunteer election workers are clearly working hard to get you results as soon as possible.

(After JustJohnny gets some sleep, maybe he could tell us how long it takes to hand count a ballot with write-ins.)

A few races are settled, and some don't even have pending court cases.

County Mayor Mike Ragsdale retains office, defeating challenger Steve Hall 12,416 (59.29%) to 8,526 (40.71%) in the Republican primary. Ragsdale will run unopposed in the August general election. It appears Hall made a pretty good showing, and actually did better than I expected.

Judge Bill Swan appears to have defeating challenger David Lee in an ugly campaign to retain his seat as 4th Circuit Court Judge. Swann will run unopposed in the August election.

Another apparent winner is County Commissioner Paul Pinkstion in South Knox District 9, who soundly defeated challenger David Kiger 1,521 (61.26%) to 962 (38.74%) in a hotly contested race. Pinkston will run unopposed in August. Oops. Rikki reminds us in comments that Pinkston will face Green Party candidate Martin Pleasant in August. (Sorry about that, Martin.) The outcome of this primary a little surprising. I expected Kiger to do better. You have to wonder if reports of his delinquent taxes hurt, or if the South Knox Pinkston machine is just too powerful.

A few incumbent commissioners lost to qualifying candidates, even before all the paper ballots are counted. R. Larry Smith appears to have defeated Mary Lou Horner (who effectively dropped out as a result of the term limits decision), Wanda Moody loses to Rex Norman, and Mike McMillan was defeated by Phil Ballard.

There could be more surprises when all the paper ballots are counted. It appears the voters of Knox County have decided to enforce some term limits themselves.

JustJohnny's picture

checking in....

...on how things are going this morning.

When the night shift started, it was on absentee and early voting paper ballots. The day shift was so overwhelmed with them that they were not able to finish. The early and absentee were completed at about 10 PM; the officials had the floor cleared, and then they trucked in box after box of election day paper ballots.

The first thing I noticed was that the election day ballots were a lot easier to count. We didn't have to open envelops and what not. It took about 45-60 seconds per ballot and about 5 minutes of admin time for each precinct.

Some precincts had all of three paper ballots, while others had stacks.

At the end of the evening, I had the chance to speak with Greg Mackay about the new voting machines (not used this time). He said that the 'printer module' was not certified for Knox County elections and that they had a single printer that officials could use to track votes if the machine/terminal didn't cooperate. He also commented on what a difference the machine would have made for this election, considering the number of write-in candidates on the ballot. I'm guessing he meant the new machine would support a 'write-in' ballot option.

I'm heading back over this afternoon to count more ballots. I'll post back anything of value.

rikki's picture

Pinky and the drainage

Pinkston will face Green party candidate Martin Pleasant on the August ballot. Pleasant works for Knox County Engineering in the stormwater division.

I can't think of anything nice to say about South Knoxville, so I'm not going to say anything. Wait! Garden Fresh Market rules! So does King Tut's greek salad and falafel sandwich, and the Greek deli in the Chevron station just across the Henley bridge serves delicious food and is run by delightful people. I like Smoky Mt. Wine & Spirits too. Lots of South Knoxville is beautiful, and birds like yellow-breasted chats and Louisiana waterthrushes still raise families there.

There. Now I can say that Pinkston's demonstrated incompetence makes him the legitimate representative of the majority of South Knoxville voters. 

Rachel's picture

I suspect the Pinkston/Kiger

I suspect the Pinkston/Kiger race will end up being closer. There were a lot of paper ballots south (almost as many paper ballots at Dogwood as machine ballots, for example). Many of those are Peg Loflin votes, and they will also be Kiger votes.

He won't win, but he will narrrow the margin somewhat.

I am embarrassed this morning to be a south Knoxvillian.

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