Voter turnout remains high this election cycle in Summit and Wasatch counties, particularly among early voters.

As of Monday, Summit County had received 19,983 absentee and in-person early voting ballots. With nearly 30,000 people registered to vote, more than two-thirds of Summit County voters chose to vote early this year.

In Summit County, 610 voters showed up in person to vote at noon Tuesday. Summit County Clerk Evelyn Furse expects low numbers of in-person voting overall.

“Usually we have less than 5% that like to vote in person,” Furse said.

As counting closed Tuesday, Summit County had received 23,466 ballots, with 12,259 processed.

As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, Wasatch County had received more than 16,100 ballots, with 4,000 still to be processed. In Wasatch County, there are approximately 22,000 active and registered voters, including registration day. That brought Wasatch County’s turnout to 73% by mid-afternoon on Election Day.

“We’re always going to process at least 35 percent more votes in a presidential election, that’s not surprising, but it’s a challenge to plan for,” said Wasatch County Clerk-Auditor Joey D. Granger. .

Summit County exceeded the national average for voter turnout by more than 25% in the 2020 general election at 92.4%, when 26,440 ballots were counted out of 26,802 registered voters.

Since 2018, the United States has experienced record voter turnout. A record 66% of eligible voters participated in the 2020 general election, according to the PEW Research Center.

Voter turnout has consistently exceeded 90 percent for the past six years in Summit County, and Furse expected no difference in this presidential election.

“I think it’s entirely possible that we get to 95 percent,” Furse said.

Furse is expected to process nearly 10,000 additional ballots Tuesday.

“The biggest difference this year is just volume. There are so many ballots coming in,” she said.

Appointed county clerk in 2021, this is her first serving presidential election.

The Summit County office will continue to process ballots throughout the week until they are completed.

“We start the day with 53% turnout statewide,” Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said in an X-article Tuesday morning. She said 96% of Utah’s early voters cast ballots by mail, with only 37,050 in person out of 952,157 ballots processed. Four years ago, early voting turnout in Utah was slightly higher, at 54.1%.

Although in-person turnout on Election Day is unpredictable and can increase the number of ballots by hundreds of thousands, Utah had a lot to look forward to from registered voters this Election Day.

In 2020, 90.09% of Utah’s active and registered voters cast ballots, a higher figure than any other election in the last 40 years, according to VoteUtah.gov.

In Wasatch County, 88.8% of registered voters participated in the 2020 general election with 17,919 ballots cast.

Voter turnout has been historically high in neighboring Wasatch Back counties compared to the national average, but only 33.6% of registered Democrats and 49.56% of registered Republicans in Wasatch participated in the presidential primary election. of 2024 in June.

In Summit County, 38.7% of registered Democrats and 46.1% of registered Republicans voted in the presidential primary.

In both counties, voter turnout exceeded the national average by nearly 30 percent. While registered voters have maintained an average turnout of more than 85% over the past six years, neighbors are helping Utah continue to lead voter turnout across the country.