Thanks to early voting and absentee ballots, 169,000 people have already cast ballots in Utah - or about 13 percent of registered voters. Those are the latest numbers on Friday afternoon from Justin Lee, Elections Specialist for the Lieutenant Governor’s office. At this rate, Lee said, early voting may make up half of all ballots in the state.
“I think people are getting more and more used to the idea of early voting,” said Lee, “They get busy on Election Day. They know they’re going to be out of town, they have soccer practice, they have a lot of things going on. It gives people more options, and I think people are taking those options.”
Lee told KUER the number of ballots cast so far suggests there may be record turnout in Utah.
“We’re expecting a really heavy turn-out and that’s what we’re seeing. We’re seeing a lot of participation, a lot of people voting,” said Lee, “We wouldn’t be surprised at all to see a really high turnout, in the upper 70 percents, if not perhaps 80 percent.”
Early voting runs through Friday November 2nd. For poll locations and times, visit vote.utah.gov.
