Luck of the Activist

Recently the question was posed to my ares of Tennessee in UVOTN, what can you do to help your area. I decided we could show up as poll workers for the local elections that nobody really knows about. This time we will not hope for pure luck we see an ad for the local elections. Learning and becoming aware of these local elections will help all of us get better people into our government.

According to the Tennessean, in my district of Sumner County we had more than 70% of all registered voters show up in 20204. This turn out was purely for the local elections. I decided to take a deeper look at this data and found a lot of “write ins”, which I myself can confirm I definitely did. These write-ins though sometimes totaled high. When voting for a new local Sheriff, yes we can vote on that, there were 1,362 for the same person. That data to me is showing that someone else should have ran. The problem is that nobody is running opposition to these people, and we aren’t all writing the same thing. If the majority of the vote went into a ‘write in’ candidate then we could elect new people. The current sheriff was appointed the job after the former one passed away. I am not here to shame Eric Craddock but options would have been nice.

His position along with many others will go the ballot on May 5th,2026 in Sumner county. Make sure you are registered to vote by April 6th,2026 to be able to vote in local elections. The first day of early voting in this local election cycle is on April 15th and ends on April 30th. In this first of the season local election the positions up for voting range from County Mayor to School Board Superintendent. The question a lot of us have once we hit the voting booth is, “What the heck does this person do?”. I can’t count how many times I have looked at some job titles and thought, “We pay for that?”, simply out of ignorance for not knowing their job. Feel ignorance no more, as we dive into what each position does!

Here is a breakdown of the major offices:

County Mayor- This position handles the finances of the county and where our taxes county side, get distributed. They run on the same election cycle as the governor of the state. They have care and “custody of county property” along with how the jails are ran. They work with the Sheriffs department on safety and regulations in jails.

Circuit Court Judge 18th Judicial District- This current office is in an unexpired term which means this election result won’t be immediate. They will finish their current term then the newly voted person, will take over. This position is for a Circuit Court Judge which is a miniature version of our Supreme court. This role will rule over criminal and civil court appeals for Juvenile and General Sessions Municipal courts. This role is similar to Chancery courts but this judge will hear criminal cases while the Chancery Courts will not.

County Commissioners- This person will help manage finances, members of the legislative county branch, “maintaining roads and bridges”, along with “maintaining court and county buildings”. These members typically have a lot of policy making power. The General Assembly in 2024 decided all would be working under T.C.A § 5-5-102(f). The interesting thing about this role is that the person who sits in it position has to be living in their district for a year prior to running for office. This is something to note when talking about replacing this person(s).

County Trustee- This is a pretty well known role for bookkeeping. They handle investments for the county and distribution of taxes in accordance with the law. They do not make a lot of policy more so the enforcement of the distribution of funds for the county.

The final offices up for voting are the Circuit Court Clerk, County Clerk, Register of Deeds, Road Superintendent, and School Board Districts. These go along with the county trustee in being mainly for bookkeeping and efficacy in the offices they help manage. These roles would be great if you are looking for a way to get more involved but voting wise they won’t make as big of a splash as the others. These roles would be good to know and be aware of when it comes to permits and regulations for protesting. These positions fall more in line with citizens who volunteered for the role, and carry out legislation.

There are more than just these few offices up for voting in May! Please check out the document below to see what offices locally may be up for voting! It would be best to check your district voting schedule for the most up to date offices and dates of voting.