Early voting turnout so far down from 2020, up from 2016 in Hamilton County

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / On March 5, Deborah Lubell, right, checks a voter's driver's license at Meadow view Baptist Church in Georgetown.

...Potential voters can face issues with going to the polls and casting a vote, local organizers said. Small things can add up and stop people from exercising their right to vote, Angélica Acevedo, an organizer with the advocacy group CALEB, said by phone.

"It's actually really difficult to vote — if you can't get off work, if you can't get short-term child care, if you don't have a ride, if you can't read," Acevedo said. "A lot of people don't know that you have the right, as a disabled person, to vote ... regardless of your IQ and your accessibility needs."

On Saturday, CALEB is set to hold a "Vote Together Day" at the Chris L. Ramsey Community Center in Brainerd, one of six early voting sites around the county.

The group received a $15,000 grant from Civic TN to help with voting efforts for the August election, organizer Alondra Gomez said by phone.

CALEB and other organizations plan to offer translation and interpretation services, child care and disability support.

"Language should never be a barrier to participating in democracy," Viri Marin, an organizer with the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition Votes, based in Chattanooga, said by phone.

Voters can ask for accommodations like brighter light or a quiet place to fill out a ballot at any polling place, Acevedo said. All polling places are also required to meet federal disability accommodation requirements.

On Saturday, CALEB plans to offer rides to the polls from meeting points at East Lake Park, RISE Chattanooga, Grace Episcopal Church and the South Chattanooga library. Acevedo said they hope the event helps normalize asking for assistance and supporting others.

​"If we don't tell each other what's going on and what we need, how are we supposed to tell government officials and counties to budget for these things?" they said.

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