Spring Hill mayor, fire chief and police chief to take pies in the face if voter turnout reaches 8%

Spring Hill Mayor Rick Graham has doubled down on his previous bet with voters.

Graham announced in a new video that he, Police Chief Don Bright and Fire Chief Terry Hood will all take pies to the face if voter turnout in the upcoming city election reaches 8 percent.

Graham first made the bet with voters in early March, waging that if voter turnout rate exceeds 10 percent, he'd take a pie in the face at the steps of City Hall. In the new video, Graham doubles down on that bet and drops the threshold to 8 percent, and threw the city's police and fire chiefs into the mix.

"I'm going to lower that down to 8 percent because it ain't going to happen," Graham said.

"I don't believe we can hit 8 percent, I definitely don't think we can hit 10 percent, so I challenge each of you to get out and vote, do your homework, do you due diligence — we have some great candidates running. The local elections are just as important — if not more — than the state and national elections."

The lighthearted wager is just one of many ways the city has been trying to get its citizens to vote in higher numbers, with city leaders having suggested expanding polling places as well as moving the election date in the past.

Spring Hill city elections have gotten progressively worse over the years, with the city seeing a 7.72 percent voter turnout rate in 2017, and a meager 5.67 percent in 2019. For comparison, Spring Hill's neighboring cities of Brentwood and Franklin saw their most recent elections reach 12.82 percent and 9.18 percent voter turnout rates, respectively.

Early voting is officially underway, and will be open from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays at the Winchester Community Building at 563 Maury Hill Street.

Early voting will conclude on April 3, with Election Day landing on April 8.

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