- April 25, 2024
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Voters are turning in their ballots by mail in record numbers in Flagler County.
"We’ve mailed out far more mail ballots than we could have ever dreamed of in 2016."
— KAITI LENHART, Flagler County supervisor of elections
As of the morning of Oct. 27, local voters have returned 26,980 of the 38,565 ballots the elections office mailed out, said Kaiti Lenhart, Flagler County's supervisor of elections.
In 2016, nearly 80% of the ballots mailed to voters came back to the elections office, but residents had not requested nearly so many.
"This year’s turnout is nothing like 2016," Lenhart said. "We passed that on day one. We’ve mailed out far more mail ballots than we could have ever dreamed of in 2016."
In 2016, the elections office had mailed out 16,530 ballots and received 13,423 back from voters — less than half he numbers that have been received so far this year, with more voting days yet to come.
Lenhart expects many more ballots to arrive in the next few days.
And, she added, some people probably requested a mail ballot this year as an insurance policy, in case they weren't able to make it to the polls.
"There’s going to be a portion of people who requested that mail ballot who end up going to vote in person," she said.
Meanwhile, in-person voting at the county's three early-voting sites this year, while sometimes busy — people reported waits of 2 hours on the first day — has not been unprecedented.
But most people are waiting about 15-30 minutes, Lenhart said. Morning hours are busier.
As of Oct. 27, 17,287 people had voted early in person, with four early voting days left. In 2016, that number was 29,696 and made up the bulk of the turnout for that election.
"I though we’d have more early voters for this election, but ... we’ve had so many vote by mail ballots returned, that’s probably a good portion of our early voters," Lenhart said.
Compared to 2016's in-person early-voting turnout, this year's has been slightly lower, but still averaging over 2,000 voters a day. If current trends continue, about 27,000 people will have voted in person by the time early voting ends Oct. 31 — close to 2016's turnout.
Voters who are still holding n to a mail-in ballot should return it in person, because ballots mailed this late may not arrive by Election Day, Lenhart said. Mail ballots can be dropped off at any early voting site during early voting hours.
Voters can still return a mail ballot in person on Election Day, but must do so at the main Supervisor of Elections Office at the Government Services Building on State Road 100, not at other voting sites.
There's been a partisan split in the way people are returning their ballots.
Of the 15,907 registered Democrats who've voted as of Oct. 27, about 74% did so by mail. Among the 19,818 Republicans who've already voted, about 49% have done so by mail.
Republicans are more likely to turn out in big numbers on Election Day itself, Lenhart said.
"If you look at the total of registered voters who are registered Republicans, I think they haven’t turned out yet," Lenhart said.
About 56% of the county's registered Democrats have already voted, while only 49% of registered Republicans have done so and only about 36% of no-party-affiliation voters have voted.
People planning to vote in person on Nov. 3 should double-check their polling location, Lenhart warned: Some have shifted since 2016, as he county added two new precinct locations.
"I think that we’re going to be surprised on Election Day," Lenhart said. "Election Day voters always surprise us. So I think they’re going to turn out, and I think there is definitely a partisan push for those folks to turn out on Election Day."
