JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) With early voting underway in Cole County, thousands of Mid-Missourians have already cast their votes a week before the election day. Absentee voting began on Monday in Cole County and according to the county clerk's office, roughly 5,800 people have already have already cast an early ballot in person, according to the clerk's office.
Around 900 have been from mail-in ballots have been cast. “We have a neighbor that doesn’t get around well and we brought her along with us,” Ray Hinches told ABC 17 after voting on Tuesday. Hinches says that he has voted early in the last couple of presidential elections.
“I think it’s a good idea because you never know the weather on election day, which maybe you can't get out. We like to have our vote count.” The number of early voters is on track to surpass the previous two presidential elections.
In 2020 Cole County had 10,054 absentee votes which was a significant increase from the 3,926 absentee votes during the 2016 election. However, a spokesman for the county clerk’s office noted that, unlike this year's election, no-excuse absentee voting was not an option in the previous two presidential elections. The clerk's office told ABC 17 News in an email that it expects to have an overall voter turnout of 75% after Election Day.
Boone County has been seeing a similar surge. The Boone County Clerk's Office wrote on its social media on Tuesday that it has had 13,500 in-person ballots cast, averaging arou.