Voting early in Tennessee could be made even easier

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that a great many Knox Countians and East Tennesseans won't be voting on Primary and Local Election Day, Thursday August 5th-because they will have already cast their ballots:
 

Officials expect overall voter turnout for the Knox County general election and state and federal primaries to surpass that of the local May primaries and elections from years past.

As of Monday — the ninth day of early voting — some 16,840 Knox County residents had cast ballots. That more than doubles the number of residents who voted at this point during the county’s May primary.

Early voting in Knox County also is ahead of the 2008 general elections, when 8,667 people cast ballots in the first nine days.

Elections officials predict total turnout of more than 60,000 of the county’s 257,400 registered voters. That’s compared to the overall 38,250 who voted in May.

As of last week, Jefferson County's early voting numbers were actually down compared to the May local primary, though those numbers may have picked up this week. I am not certain of the county numbers at this point in early voting compared to May, but I do know that as of yesterday, 2,334 Jefferson Countians had already cast their votes, 1,799 of them did so in the Republican primary. Clearly, early voting is popular among Tennesseans, but we know that in rural counties it is more difficult for some to vote early, since the number of early voting stations is small compared to larger metropolitan counties like Knox, Davidson, Shelby, or Hamilton.

We ought to make it even easier to early vote by doing away with the waiting period between the end of early voting and Election Day. Why not allow voters to cast ballots from the beginning of early voting right up to Election Day, simply opening precinct polling stations on that day? It seems doable, and perhaps it should be considered as a way to increase voter turnout even further.