Local early voting turnout tops 2020 but still lags behind state average
It seems that a growing number of voters in Alamance County have decided to embrace at least the first half of the old Chicago adage about voting early and often.
According to the local elections office, a total of 65,008 people in Alamance County have already cast ballots during the early voting period for Tuesday’s general election. This figure equates to about 54.6 percent of the 119,130 voters who appeared on the county’s voter rolls when the state’s early voting period ended on Saturday, November 2.
Dawn Hurdle, the county’s elections director, said that this percentage compares favorably to the early voting turnout from the last Presidential election.
“In 2020, we had 48 percent turnout for early voting with the pandemic,” Hurdle recalled in an interview Monday. “But our mail-in absentees were higher at 14 percent.”
An early voting turnout of 54.6 percent is somewhat lower than the statewide average of 56.7 percent. Even so, it was still heralded as a milestone by Alamance County’s commissioners, who received the early voting figures during their latest regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday morning. Statewide, 4.2 million citizens have already cast their ballots through the end of early voting at 3:00 on Saturday.
In the meantime, Hurdle believes that the county may be on track for a record-breaking turnout once her office adds in the ballots that she expects to receive on the day of the election.
“With the calls that we’ve been having today,” she said, “I’m still looking for a large turnout tomorrow.”
Polls will open throughout the county (and state) from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
