Madison County Clerk Debra Ming-Mendoza and her counterpart in Jersey County, Pam Warford, couldn’t be more pleased with voter turnout on Tuesday.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Both county clerks witnessed large turnouts in their respective counties, with an unofficial count in Madison County of 70,098 ballots cast from 176,000 registered voters. In the end, the vote total will amount to approximately a 38 to 39 percent turnout, Ming-Mendoza said. In Jersey County, Warford reported 6,069 ballots were cast of 15,547 registered voters, or a 39.04 percent turnout.
In Madison County 34,798 Democrats voted, while 36,131 Republicans cast ballots.
Ming-Mendoza said the vote numbers were simply “huge” in Madison County.
“An example of how huge it was yesterday, comparing in 2014, a non-presidential election, 26,000 people voted and in 2012, it was a presidential election and 29,000 people voted,” she said. “Almost three times that amount came to the polls this time compared to 2012. It is exciting and a wonderful thing. This is the way a Democracy should be.”
Warford said it was a tremendous turnout in Jersey, too, and the county had to print extra ballots.
“We have the capability to print them and we knew we made sure we had plenty at the precincts,” she said. “I know there has been a lot of talk about the presidential races and the Senate race. It sure seems people are taking an interest in the election. It is a good thing to be informed about issues and the candidates.”
Ming-Mendoza said Madison County printed a lot of extra ballots because multiple precincts ran out with the large turnout.
“We kept the polls open past 7 o’clock to try to accommodate voters who came and were unable to vote waiting on ballots,” she said. “We were delivering ballots after 7 p.m. to two or three precincts to accommodate voters. The voters are to be commended. Ninety-nine percent of them were patient and waited to get to vote. I am grateful for that.”
Madison County still concluded its process by 10:30 p.m., despite printing extra ballots and leaving the polls open a little longer to accommodate the last-minute crowd. Ming-Mendoza said she couldn’t be more pleased with how her staff and those working at the precincts handled the election on Tuesday.
More like this:
