Greene County Clerk’s Office Predicts Historic Voter Turnout

KSMU | By Josh Conaway

Published November 2, 2020 at 4:57 PM CST

Voters wait in line outside of the Greene County Election Center to cast an absentee ballot.

Greene County officials are predicting record shattering turnout ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election as voters choose between incumbent President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.Listen to the audio for this story here.

Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller says he expects mail-in and early absentee voting to combine with Election Day voting to create some impressive numbers.

“I think in terms of our active registered voters, we will see somewhere between 75 to 80% turnout," Schoeller said. "That’s going to include people who voted before the day of the election, and that’s going to include people coming out on Election Day as well.”

That’s higher than the record set during the 2008 presidential election between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, when turnout reached just over 71% in the county.

Schoeller estimates about 10% of the total votes received so far are no-excuse mail-in ballots, while the rest are absentee ballots, either mailed in or dropped off early.

The 2016 election had the next highest turnout in Greene County, with 69% of registered voters participating.