Here is the April Housing Report compiled from the Knoxville Area Multiple Listing Service data.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Greg Mackay
Real Estate Broker
Coldwell Banker Wallace
865-556-1276

Infograph

(link...)

Charts

(link...)

Here is the March Housing Report compiled from the Knoxville area Multiple Listing Service data.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Greg Mackay
Real Estate Broker
Coldwell Banker Wallace

(link...)

(link...)

(link...)

I want to thank Claudia Stallings our VP of Residential Sales who compiles this report monthly.

If you have any questions about this or any realty concerns feel free to contact me.
865-556-1276

Greg Mackay
Coldwell Banker Wallace

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Patrick Relford
(865) 335-7941
press@votevirginiacouch.com

VIRGINIA COUCH LAUNCHES RUN FOR TENNESSEE HOUSE DISTRICT 18
Knoxville Attorney’s Campaign to Focus on ‘Opportunity’

Knoxville, Tennessee - March 11, 2020 - This week, Knoxville lawyer and small business owner Virginia Couch announced her intention to run for the Tennessee House of Representatives, seeking the District 18 seat.

“I believe success depends on opportunity,” Couch said. “And I will fight for all Tennesseans to have the opportunity to receive a quality public education, the opportunity to have access to quality, affordable healthcare, and the opportunity to improve their economic condition and achieve financial security.”

“Our governor and legislative majority in Nashville are actively working to block access to these opportunities for many Tennesseans,” Couch added. “I won’t sit back and watch any longer. I’m going to do something about it.”

Couch is an attorney with The Trust Company of Tennessee, and is also the founder and co-owner of Barkside Lodge, a dog boarding, daycare, swimming, and grooming center in Lenoir City. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in Business Administration and from the University of Tennessee College of Law where she earned her law degree with a Business Transactions Concentration. Since 2009, she has also served as Adjunct Faculty for the University of Tennessee College of Law teaching contract drafting.

She said her law and small business background will suit her well as a State House Representative.

“As a business lawyer and a small business owner I have learned two important skills missing in many legislators: how to listen and how to work as part of a team.” Couch said. “I’m excited for the chance to bring my experience to the Capitol.”

Couch, a 32-year resident of Knoxville, currently lives in the Seven Springs community with her partner, Brian Blind.

Putin and a boy.

For what it's worth:
I think Romney will pick Senator Rob Portman of Ohio as his running mate.

From Forbes. The self proclaimed "Capitalist Tool"

(link...)

Someone forgot to tell Ron Paul that this thing is over.
His troops stormed the Minnesota delegate convention on Saturday and took over:

(link...)

Earlier this month in Maine the same thing:

(link...)

And Nevada too.

Watch Montana on June 3rd.

Knox County Charter Sec. 2.03 specifies the following elections for County Commission in 2010:

County Commission District 1 for six years
County Commission District 2 for six years
County Commission District 3 for four years
County Commission District 4 for six years
County Commission District 5 for six years
County Commission District 6 for six years
County Commission District 7 for four years
County Commission District 8 for six years
County Commission District 9 for six years
County Commission Seat 10 at-large for four years
County Commission Seat 11 at-large for four years

New.
On our website.

KnoxVotes.Org

Check to see if you are registered to vote.

See (link...) for a detailed explanation of the process.

We have processed 34,600 names on the White petition.
26,231 are valid thru stage 1.
This is a rejection rate of 24.19%.
We do not count signatures if the person is not registered, if the "genuine address" or the date is absent or if the citizen failed to print their name.

This represents over 71% of the needed signatures.

We have checked 6687 thru stage 2.
6637 were valid.

Greg Mackay
Knox County AOE

We have a two part process to verify the petitions.
First, using the Petition Eligibility System developed by the County Information Technology Department, we look up each signer. We verify that the person is registered and has put down the address we have in our files. We also look to make sure that the other components required by law are there: printed name, date, and the complete wording of the amendment(s) on the page.
We call this Stage 1.
In Stage 1 we have processed 25,010 names on the White petitions.
19,268 are valid.
The rejection rate is 22.95%.
We have completed Stage 1 for 52.55% of the number needed to put the white petition on the ballot.
In Stage 2 we check the signature on the petition against the signature on the voter registration card. If the worker thinks they are not the same signature we make a copy of each signature and put them in the "Disputed Signature" file.
This is a very slow process.
I do not have any exact numbers for Stage 2 but after two and a half full days there are less than a dozen names in the Disputed file.

Greg Mackay
AOE

We have processed 18,837 on the white petition.
14,543 are valid.
That is 22.77% rejection rate.

This is 39.67% of the needed number.

The easiest way to register to vote is to print the online form, fill it out and mail it in.

(link...)

The link tells you how to register and how to find the address of your election office.

These forms work anywhere in the USA.

Send this along to everyone and lets have a viral voter registration drive.

Greg Mackay
Adminisrator of Elections
Knox County, Tennessee

The title says it all.

The link explains it all.

(link...)

With the date of the New Hampshire presidential primary set at last, the primary calendar is finally in order. The first votes will be cast 38 days from today in Iowa. The course ahead over the next three months:

Thursday, January 3: Iowa

Saturday, January 5: Wyoming Republicans

Tuesday, January 8: New Hampshire

Tuesday, January 15: Michigan

Saturday, January 19: Nevada; South Carolina Republicans

Tuesday, January 29: Florida; South Carolina Democrats

Saturday, February 2: Maine Republicans

(link...)

Early voting starts here Jan. 16

I would like to see your predictions on voter turnout for the February election.
In '04 it was about 33,000. 23k Democrats, 10k GOP. Remember the Democratic race was all but over and W was unopposed for the Repubs. Locally we had a few hotly contested school board and commission races.
(link...)

The last Presidential was over 180,000 (Nov. 2004)
The Nov. 2006 Gubernatorial and Senate pulled over 110,000.

So what should I expect?

70,000 (30 demos, 40 GOP) ?
I’ve had people say as high as 150,000.

What do you think?

We often hear people say, "I'm a registered Democrat" or "I’m a registered Republican" when in fact you do not register by party in Tennessee. In previous post ((link...)) I had to open my big mouth and assert, "There is no space for party designation on any of the voter registration forms in our files."

I was wrong.

The National Mail Voter Registration Form ((link...)) has a space (number 7) called "Choice of Party". Obviously it was made for those states that require registration by party. You can use one of these forms to register in Tennessee and I am sure there are some in our files.

At least now I know why people think they are registering by party.

The Knox County One Question "Snapshot" of local governments that appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel on Sunday was a noble effort to explain the complex intertwining of our different governments.

One thing wrong in it was the contention that School Board elections are partisan. They are not!

School Board candidates run non-partisan, with no party affiliation. If no one gets a majority the top two run in the August General Election. If one candidate gets a majority that candidate is on the ballot alone in August.

Also, I believe the Attorney General, Public Defender and Judges run again in 2014, not 2010 as stated.

All in all it was a good summary of a complicated situation.

Greg Mackay
Knox County
Administrator of Elections

(ED. NOTE: Here is the local government "snapshot" Greg is referring to, courtesy of the KNS.)