Tuesday voter turnout could be largest in decades

Tomorrow could mark the largest voter turnout in decades – if Missouri election officials’ predictions prove true.

Local election jurisdictions are expecting more than 3.2 million people to cast ballots on Tuesday, according to figures provided by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office.

That would amount to 75% of the state’s 4.3 million registered voters.

If the predictions come true, that would be Missouri’s highest turnout rate since 1992, when 78% of registered voters cast ballots in a presidential election won by Democrat Bill Clinton.

The greatest total number of ballots cast in Missouri was 2.9 million in the 2008 election, when Democrat Barack Obama was elected to president.

As of Sunday, about 828,000 Missouri voters already had returned absentee or mail-in ballots. That’s nearly three times as many absentee ballots as were counted in the last presidential election.

State officials made the absentee voting requirements the mail-in ballot option easier this year this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.