Primary election sees higher turnouts, varied results across precincts

Almost 15% of Sullivan County's 103,476 registered voters participated in Tuesday's primary election — with 15,236 ballots cast. That exceeds 2022's May turnout of around 12,500. In Hawkins County, a little more than 22% of registered voters participated in the election this past Tuesday: 8,696 of 38,948 registered voters. Voter turnout grew two percentage points from 2022 — the last non-presidential primary — to 2026. The number of registered voters also increased by almost 5,000 people. Here's how those votes were spread across the counties' precincts — and which races people skipped over. Results are considered unofficial until certified. Sullivan County In Sullivan County, under-voting was apparent in the District 6 County Commission. Three people in the Republican primary were seeking three seats, but one got markedly fewer votes. Newcomer Tim Pullon of Indian Springs got 1,582 votes or 37.45%, compared to Matthew Johnson with 1,497 35.44% and Bob Harshbarger Jr. with 1,145 or 27.11%. Those results indicate some voters chose to vote for only one or two of the three candidates instead of all of them. Harshbarger gave money to six other commission hopefuls, four in the Republican primary and two who will appear in the Aug. 6 general election as independents. One is Jason Walden, who originally filed as a Republican but was told he was not "bona fide" because of his GOP primary voting record. The other is Ken Osborne. Of all on the primary ballot, Sheriff Jeff Cassidy got the most votes at 12,928, which still shows under-voting in that countywide race. The race that drew the highest number of voters was the county mayor's race, at 14,322 votes: 8,642 for winner Zane Vanover compared to 5,680 for Angie Stanley. Stanley won one of 25 precincts: 5B, Bluff City Town Hall. In contrast, in her 2022 run against incumbent Republican Richard Venable, she won in multiple precincts and outpolled Venable on Election Day. However, early voting numbers gave Venable a lead that held even after the Election Day votes were counted. This year, however, Vanover won in early voting and on Election Day. Hawkins County Over half of the votes cast in the 2026 primary — 4,907 — came from walk-in early voting. About 100 people voted through paper absentee, while 3,673 voted at the polls on Election Day. The district with the most voters — which also had the best turnout rate, of 31% — was District 5, Rogersville. District 7, which represents Bulls Gap and the southwest part of Hawkins, and District 2, with Church Hill and the surrounding community, were next. Conversely, Mount Carmel and Allandale's District 1 had a particularly low turnout of 10%. The races for mayor and sheriff drew the most votes. There were 8,294 votes cast for mayor, and 8,402 for sheriff. That means several hundred people skipped those races on their ballots. The race for county clerk, the only other contested countywide office, received 7,511 votes. Other countywide races received votes in the 7,000s, except for road superintendent. That one, where incumbent Danny Jones ran alone, got 6,526 votes. While incoming Mayor David Linkous won the overall race, fellow candidate Keith Gibson led in districts 1, 2 and 3. It was this success in the upper east end of Hawkins that made Gibson the runner-up, edging out current Mayor Mark DeWitte by 73 votes. Gibson and his family live in and near those districts; he is a Church Hill alderman, while his son is the Mount Carmel mayor and a District 1 commissioner. Kenneth Stapleton received the least votes of the four mayoral candidates, but won one precinct in District 4, Upper Beech. He got the second-most votes in District 6's precincts Clinch and Alum Well, losing to Linkous. Similarly, incoming Sheriff Scott Stewart won the bulk of the vote — 40%, with runner-up Tony Allen at 23% — but competitors led in the upper east. Allen received the most votes in District 1 and District 2's Church Hill precinct. Roddy Miller won District 2's McPheeters Bend and District 3's Carter's Valley. Miller placed second in the Church Hill precinct — where he is the police department's assistant chief — and in Mount Carmel. Meanwhile, sheriff candidate David Good did better in the lower end of the county. He led the vote in District 7's Bulls Gap precinct — where he used to serve as a city police officer — and closely followed Stewart's lead in St. Clair. In District 2's commission race, leader and incumbent Jeff Barrett got 13 less votes than newcomer Randy Patterson, who also won the Republican nomination. District 7 incumbent Commissioner Bobby Jinks defended his seat from former Commissioner Michael Herrell by 22 votes. Jinks lost to Herrell in two of the three precincts: St. Clair and Cherokee. In the latter precinct, Herrell came within 12 votes of overall leader and incumbent Commissioner Robbie Palmer. District 4's school board race was close among the precincts. Challenger Tecky Hicks won Rogersville North by 32 votes. Incumbent Hannah Speaks, who defended her seat, won Keplar-Dykes by four votes, and Upper Beech by one; it was Surgoinsville — where she won by 71 — that secured her victory. In District 6's school board race, incumbent and winner Debbie Shedden lost to challenger Travis Charles in two of the four precincts. She ended up with 75 more votes than him. In the Democratic primary, voters wrote names into their ballot for lack of an official candidate. However, the Hawkins County Election Commission said that no write-in candidates were certified. Some races in the Republican primary also saw write-ins receiving 100% of the vote. This was common in races where no candidate qualified, like the constable races in districts 4 and 5. Again, none of these names were certified. Editor's note: This article was corrected on May 10 to state that, in the 2022 election, incumbent Mayor Richard Venable outpolled in early voting while challenger Angie Stanley outpolled on Election Day. Venable won that race.