JERSEYVILLE - Jersey County Clerk Pam Warford said the early voting turnout in Jersey County has been “pretty good” so far this election cycle, citing more than 300 in-person early voters and 350 mail-in votes as of Monday afternoon. She also said the county’s new “permanent vote-by-mail” option which launched earlier this year has proven even more popular than expected.
Warford said that based on the early voting turnout so far, there seems to be slightly more interest this election cycle compared to the primaries earlier this year.
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“We’ve definitely been busier overall, but the general election will have a higher overall turnout,” Warford said. “There’s about as much interest or more as there is in a typical general election.”
Slightly more votes have been cast via mail-in ballots so far - Warford said 350 ballots have been sent back out of 900 that were mailed out by her office.
Earlier this year, her office also sent out applications offering voters a “permanent vote-by-mail” option, which she said has been even more popular than she anticipated. So far, 859 Jersey County voters have subscribed to the permanent vote-by-mail program.
“We’ve had a significant turnout for that - maybe even more than I expected - of those voters who requested the permanent vote-by-mail status,” Warford said. “It was new this year and something we sent out an application offering to voters, and we had a very big response.”
The first batch of mail-in ballots was sent out on Sept. 29, and the last day to apply for mail-in voting or permanent mail-in voting in Jersey County is Nov. 3. Applications are available on the Jersey County Clerk website.
With high local interest in races at every level, Warford predicts a strong turnout on Nov. 8, and said her staff is preparing accordingly.
“We’re preparing for at least as high of a turnout as we had in 2020 … we had nearly an 80 percent turnout then, but we’re preparing as if our turnout will be that high,” she said. “It wouldn’t surprise me to have a 70 percent turnout in Jersey County because of things going on not only state and national levels, but local races here that are bringing out a lot of voters too.”
Jersey County’s early voting period began on Thursday, Sept. 29 and ends on Monday, Nov. 7 (the day before Election Day). Early voting is available at the Jersey County Government Building, located at 200 N. Lafayette St. in Jerseyville, on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and each Saturday until Nov. 5 from 9 a.m. to noon.
For more information about early and mail-in voting in Jersey County, read the Jersey County Early Voting Notice, call the Jersey County Clerk at (618) 498-5571, ext. 6 or visit their website.
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