Early vote total shatters previous record

Monday, November 7, 2016
A panoramic view of the second floor of the Putnam County Courthouse around noon on Monday reveals just how in demand early voting was in Putnam County. Voters wrapped around three sides of the second-floor railing, waiting nearly an hour to vote in some cases. In total, 3,629 citizens cast early in-person ballots, easily a new record in the county.
Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

Putnam County voters came early to the polls in record numbers this year.

Closing with a flurry of activity in the final days, 3,629 registered voters cast early in-person ballots at the Putnam County Courthouse between Oct. 12 and Nov. 7.

This is 836 more early in-person voters than the previous record of 2,793, set in 2008. It is also nearly 1,300 more than the 2,354 figure of four years ago.

In total, more than 14.4 percent of registered Putnam County voters have already cast their ballots, not including voting by mail, which had not yet been tabulated as of Monday afternoon.

For the sake of comparison, in-person early voters represented just 11.5 percent of registered Putnam County voters in 2008 and 9.9 percent in 2012.

It will not be known until Tuesday evening what portion of voter turnout the early voters represent. However, if the early trends hold, the county as a whole could be in for a record-breaking day at the polls.

Voters turned out in particularly strong numbers in the finals days of early voting. An average of 172.8 people came to the polls each of the 21 days of early voting, but these numbers were boosted by 322 voters each on Friday, Nov. 4 and Saturday, Nov. 5, as well as more than 200 in only four hours on Monday.

Monday was so busy, in fact, that although the polls technically closed at noon, that only closed voting to those not yet in line. The last ballot was cast at 12:45 p.m.

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