The demand for online vote results crashed a state computer system Thursday night, which temporarily stopped Secretary of State Tre Hargett from counting incoming ballots. The technological mishap slowed the reporting of election results in
An unprecedented amount of traffic on the Secretary of State's website had caused the error, forcing officials to send results via emails and faxes.
One result has yet to be determined. The Tennessee Senate District 21 Democratic primary saw State Sen. Douglas Henry, a forty-year veteran of the Senate, leading challenger Jeff Yarbro by two votes, with only provisional ballots still be to counted. Voters are allowed to cast provisional ballots when the election commission is not certain whether or not the voters are registered in the district. The outcome of the race will be decided today once those ballots are counted.
Nashville anesthesiologist Steven Dickerson was the apparent Republican primary winner in the district, defeating attorney James Chesser by over 1,300 votes.
In the GOP gubernatorial race, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam earned the nomination with a convincing victory on Thursday, beating a field that included Rep. Zach Wamp and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. In the latest report, Haslam led second-place Wamp 52 percent to 27 percent. Haslam moves on to the general election, where he will be a favorite against businessman Mike McWherter, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
In the Democratic primary race for House District 58, Rep. Mary Pruitt, 76, edged newcomer Steven Turner, 27, to hold the seat she's occupied since 1985. With all precincts reporting, Pruitt won with 53 percent of the vote to Turner's 47 percent.
Democrat David Smith handily defeated outgoing Metro Council member Eric Crafton by nearly 5,000 votes to secure the Davidson County Juvenile Court Clerk race. Crafton was a number of controversal decisions in his Council tenure, including his efforts to enact “English only” laws and by his ardent opposition to expanding Metro’s nondiscrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Democrat Jim Cooper, a four-term congressman, will hope to retain his seat in the 5th Congressional District this fall. David Hall, who owns a home remodeling business, defeated a dozen challengers to win the Republican nomination and will compete against Cooper in November.