Residents were able to take advantage of Evansville Public Library early polling locations for the past month.
Vanderburgh County Clerk of the Circuit Court Carla Hayden said 7,049 early ballots were cast in what is technically in-person absentee voting.
Because of this, her staff must wait until after 6 P.M., when polling closes, to actually count votes.
There were 5,348 early votes in 2019 and 6,228 in 2015 with a consistent number of early polling locations.
With 'dozens' of Kentucky Counties consolidating polling locations for budget reasons, Hayden said this easy access is important.
“The more convenient that we can make it for the voters to vote, the more people are going to take advantage of that. We also know that some voters it doesn't take much to discourage them from voting.”
Hayden said the weather can also discourage voting — the elections office was concerned due to the rainy forecast for today, which didn’t materialize.
She said consistently, Washington Square Mall is the busiest polling location overall.
“We've compared some numbers from previous elections,” she said. “It's running about the same maybe a little more than the last couple of municipal elections. But it's hard to tell until you get to the end of the day.”
As of noon today there were 4,962 in-person votes. In Vanderburgh County, this election is strictly for Evansville Mayor and City Council.
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