Both council elections are a little different than most races. The council races are nonpartisan, meaning the candidates do not run by party and "at large" meaning top vote getters win. In Loudon that means the top four vote getters win. In LC it's the top three.

That opens the races for unique circumstances not found in designated seat races. When a voter goes to the polls, they have the option to vote for any three of the five candidates in the Lenoir City race. In Loudon, it's any four of the eight candidates.

There's an old political strategy in this style of election. It's called "single shot" voting. Some candidates have learned to ask voters to "single shot" them. That means the voter would only vote for one candidate instead of three or four. What this does is triple or quadruple the value of that one vote in other words, that one vote really equals three or four.

Single shot voting is not illegal and is effective in determining elections but any candidate who would ask a voter to single shot shows that they are probably more concerned in their own interest than the interest of the city.

I've heard Lenoir City candidates tell voters, "You can vote for three but single shot me".

I guess in Loudon they could say, "You can vote for four but vote for me and no more".

These will be interesting elections.