CARROLLTON - Mail-in and early voting have begun in Greene County, but Greene County Clerk Deborah Banghart said this election’s turnout is slightly lower than expected so far, especially given the competition amongst county board candidates.
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“Compared to another primary, it’s down from what it was previously,” Banghart said. “We have a contested county board race - there’s 10 running on the Republican side and only seven of them can move forward. I really thought that would bring out a lot more [voters], but so far that doesn’t seem to have happened.”
The biggest contributing factor to this lower-than-usual turnout is this election’s unusual timing, Banghart said.
“Nobody really thinks of an election being in June,” Banghart said. “Always before, it was in March and April and now when you advertise it, someone will say, ‘I didn’t even know we had an election coming up’ … a lot of people just don’t even know there’s an election going on.”
Banghart said mail-in voting has been “a little bit slower than normal,” along with in-person early voting at the courthouse, making voter turnout in Greene County fairly low across the board so far this election.
“People coming into the courthouse has been the slowest,” Banghart said. “We’ve always usually had a pretty good turnout for early voting here at the courthouse, but that is down too.”
Based on the numbers so far, Banghart said she expects the turnout this Election Day on June 28 to be around 40-50 percent, which is slightly lower than average for a Greene County primary election.
The early voting period for Greene County began on May 19 and will end on June 27. Polls will open for regular voting on Election Day at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. For more information about the candidates running and polling places/hours, contact the Greene County Clerk’s Office at 217-942-5443.
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