Area counties see increases in voter turnout, absentee ballots

Carter and Reynolds counties saw the highest percentage of increases in voter turnout for Tuesday’s presidential election.

Area counties reflected national trends in higher percentage of turnout and the casting of absentee ballots.

With 3,449 ballots being cast, Deputy Clerk Paige Million said, Carter County’s turnout was at 73%.

For the presidential election in 2016, “the number of ballots cast then was 2,912,” which equated to just over 61% of the county’s registered voters, Million said.

Reynolds County also topped the 70%-mark, with its turnout coming at “almost 75%,” said County Clerk Mike Harper.

Of the county’s 4,451 registered voters, 3,330 cast ballots, said Harper, who indicated this year’s total “may have been the biggest one” for the county.

Harper believes at least 300 more cast their ballots in this election than in 2016.

“Usually, we run about 65 percent on a presidential; this was by far the best one,” Harper said.

The number of absentee ballots also increased, with 503 being cast, Harper said.

“I was thinking 350 to 400; they were coming out of the woodwork,” Harper said. “We had people with COVID. Everybody had a chance to vote.”

The number of voters casting absentee ballots in Ripley County also more than doubled this year.

“The last presidential we had 5,593 voters vote,” said Ripley County Clerk Becky York. “This presidential, we had 5,750.

“We only had 157 more than we had at our last presidential, but we had many, many more voters that voted absentee this time.”

In 2016, York said, 532 absentee ballots were cast.

“This time, we had 1,335,” she said. “Of the 1,335, 700 some of them came through the office, where we had to fill out applications or we had to go out to the vehicle.

“ … When we had a total of 5,750 voters and 1,335 passed through this office either through the mail or in person … that’s a big percentage.”

York attributed the increase in the legislation enacted, which permitted those at risk of contracting COVID to vote absentee.

“A number of the people (voting absentee) were regular voters, voting in every election, that opted to come into the office to personally cast their ballot … as opposed to their polling place on election day.”

Based on discussions and media reports prior to the election, York said, she anticipated “much more of a turnout than what we actually had compared to four years ago. I was surprised to find only 157 people more.”

Like Ripley County, Butler and Wayne counties also had only a slight increase in voter turnout.

The percentage, according to Butler County Clerk Tonyi Deffendall, just “barely” increased.

“I really thought we were going to blow it out of the water, but percentage wise … it was less than a percent difference.”

In November 2016, Deffendall said, 68.03% of Butler County’s registered voters cast ballots.

Before the cutoff at noon Friday for any additional military ballots, Deffendall said, the total sits at 69.70%.

“I’m not sure we’ll get any military,” as there weren’t many left to be returned, so any increase would be slight, she said.

Of the county’s 26,130 registered voters, Deffendall said, 18,212 cast ballots Tuesday.

In 2016, she said, 17,444 of the 25,642 registered voters cast ballots.

“It’s still up from ‘16; I know we voted more people than we ever have,” said Deffendall, who was pleased with the way everything flowed on election day.

While the number of registered voters has increased in Butler County, the number has declined in Wayne County, where its turnout increased by slightly more than 1%.

“This year, we had a little over 65.66%, which is way up there,” said Wayne County Clerk Kent Sisco. “We had 5,907 ballots (cast). … Fifty-seven more people voted in this election.”

In 2016, Sisco said, 64.05% of the county’s registered voters cast ballots in the general election.

“We have fewer registered voters now too,” Sisco said. “We have 137 fewer registered voters” than in 2016.

Like the other counties, Wayne County’s number of absentee ballots “almost doubled,” with 911 voting absentee.

“For a county with less than 6,000 votes, almost 1,000 of them were absentee,” he said.

In Dunklin County, 10,419 votes were cast there in the presidential race.

Further information was not available from Dunklin County or from Stoddard County before press time.

Election results will be certified Friday in Missouri, where the Associated Press reports more than three million voters cast ballots, marking the first time the state exceeded that threshold.

Missouri’s previous high mark was 2.9 million voters in the 2008 presidential election when Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency.

Since then, Missouri has added more than 100,000 voters to its rolls, for a total of 4.3 million registered voters.

About 70% of registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election. That fell shy of the 75% threshold, which had been forecast by Missouri’s local election officials.

As of Thursday afternoon, a total of 141,465,188 ballots had been cast nationally in the presidential race.

Although millions of presidential ballots still are being counted, AP reports the total voter turnout already has surpassed 2016’s level.

In 2016, when Donald Trump won the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, 59.2 percent voted.