Nearly 77% of eligible county voters cast a ballot in the Nov. 5 general election, according to results certified Wednesday by the Montgomery County Board of Elections.
This is slightly lower than the county’s turnout during the 2020 presidential election, in which nearly 80% of county residents cast a ballot, according to state elections board data. In 2016, nearly 74% of residents cast a ballot.
More than 523,000 votes were cast in the general election, with 175,000 cast at 232 polling places on Election Day, county elections board President David Naimon said in a press release Wednesday. As of Oct. 20, 683,515 Montgomery County residents were eligible, registered voters, according to state elections board data.
Mail-in ballots accounted for about 166,000 of the votes — a significantly lower total than in the 2020 general election. That election, which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, saw 348,744 county voters mail in their ballots.
However, early voting saw an increase in popularity in 2024, with 156,000 ballots cast at 14 early voting locations over eight days – a possible reflection of the receding pandemic. In 2020, 128,684 county residents voted early in person.
“The certified returns also included a record number of provisional ballots – more than 26,000 of them were found to be eligible and were counted,” Naimon said in the board’s news release. “Roughly two-thirds of those were cast on Election Day and roughly one-third were cast during early voting. We count every eligible vote.”
The board was required to reject more than 2,000 ballots for a “variety of reasons,” according to the release. More than 600 of these ballots were mailed in late. All mail-in ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day in order to be eligible to be counted.
“Unfortunately, we were required to reject hundreds of mail-in or provisional ballots because the voter didn’t include or didn’t sign the oath, left out other crucial information on the provisional ballot application, or the mail-in ballot was postmarked after Election Day,” board Secretary Amie Hoeber said in the release. “These simple errors are easily correctable. … If mail-in ballot voters mail their ballots earlier or use one of the 58 drop boxes across the county, many of these errors can be avoided or corrected in time for the votes to be counted.”
Naimon said the board will be working on its communication and outreach efforts to help prevent voters from casting ineligible ballots, and to limit the number of provisional ballots received.
Provisional ballots are filed when a voter’s identity cannot be determined, or if a voter casts a ballot at the wrong precinct. Election workers must research the voter’s identity to verify eligibility before the vote can be counted and that can be time consuming, Naimon said.
