Both city 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 six  candidates in the Lenoir City race. In Loudon, it's any four of the ten 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. I'm certainly not promoting the single shot voting, I'm simply explaining what it is and how it works. Voters will have to make the decision how they want to vote.

The Lenoir City Board Of Education election is also a nonpartisan "at large" election susceptible to the single shot strategy, four candidates running for two seats.

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.