TEN THOUSAND HAVE ALREADY VOTED IN PLATTE COUNTY
Platte Countians have embraced the idea of early voting.
As reported in last week’s Between the Lines column, on the first day of no excuse absentee voting on Oct. 22, a whopping 1835 Platte County voters took advantage.
As of Monday, Oct. 28 at mid-day, nearly 10,000 Platte Countians have already voted ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
“Right now I’m showing that we have processed 9,974 voters,” Chris Hershey, director for the Platte County Board of Elections told The Landmark at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 28.
Hershey said it’s possible that voter turnout will have already hit 20 percent by the time Election Day arrives.
“I’d say we are making a good run to exceed 20 percent voter turnout by Election Day,” Hershey added.
Early voting opened last Tuesday, Oct. 22.
The turnout is well above what election officials had initially expected.
“We (election board staff) like to each take a guess on big days like this. I had the high guess of 700. Wow!” said Hershey on Oct. 22, after a busy opening day of early voting.
Numerous parked cars lined the street near the board of elections office throughout the week. Voters told The Landmark that although there was a line, the voting process moved quickly and there were no problems encountered.
“So easy,” one older female voter said as she walked away after casting her ballot mid-afternoon on Tuesday.
Hershey said in the four week period of absentee voting that preceded the opening of no excuse voting, there were 1534 absentee ballots cast. The early voting process rolled well past that number on the first day alone.
If you’re interested in voting early, there’s still time to get it done.
Early voting at the board of elections office is available between 8-5 Monday through Friday, as well as till 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30, and from 8 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturday, Nov. 2.
The board of elections is located at 2600 NW Prairie View Road in Platte City.
