A total of 47,873 Montgomery County residents have cast their ballots since Thursday, which was the first day of a one-week early voting period before the Nov. 6 general election, according to the latest totals from the Board of Elections website. That includes 20,548 voters who visited one of the county’s 11 early voting centers over the weekend.
In an interview Friday, Board of Elections Public Information Officer Gilberto Zelaya said 14,519 residents voted Thursday, compared with 4,321 on the first day of early voting for the 2014 mid-term election. However, Day One early voting totals in the 2016 presidential election surpassed Thursday’s ballot count, with 21,888 people turning out, he said. Early voting runs through Nov.1.
The significant increase in turnout from the first day of early voting four years ago is consistent with a similar trend that occurred in the primary. Bethesda Beat previously reported that 4,290 residents took advantage of the first day of early voting in this year’s June primary, compared with 2,480 in 2014. So what’s the secret behind the numbers?
“It could be a combination of factors,” Zelaya said, noting that the elections board conducted more than 1,100 outreach efforts between the 2014 and 2016 general elections. Outreach, he said, includes a series of presentations to different groups such as students and seniors on how to register to vote and where to vote.
“A lot of other localities only do outreach close to the election, but we do ours year-round. We don’t tend to wait until the last minute,” he said.
Maryland State Board of Elections Director Jared DeMarinis tweeted Thursday that 88,500 people across the state had cast ballots on the first day of early voting. An additional 24,000 had voted by noon on Friday, according to DeMarinis.
Voters can cast their ballots at 11 locations throughout the county from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wait times at polling places are also available on the board of elections website, and are updated every 20 minutes, Zelaya said.
He recommends voters pre-mark the sample ballot that they should have received in the mail and bring it with them when they go to county polling places.
“It speeds up the process once the voter gets the ballot in hand,” he said.
[For more information on the candidates and others running in the Nov. 6 general election, check out the Bethesda Beat 2018 Voters’ Guide.]
