Approximately 10% of Shawnee County has already voted

Approximately 10% of Shawnee County votes have already been cast as voter registration surges to an all-time high in the 2020, pandemic-affected election.

Election Commissioner Andrew Howell said at Thursday’s Shawnee County Commission meeting that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were the second, third and fourth highest all-time number of voters coming into the election office in a single day. One day in 2016 holds the record for most voters in the election office.

Howell said 116,415 people are registered to vote in Shawnee County, which is around 3,000 more people than he has seen.

Howell said the first week of early voting has been moving smoothly with wait times ranging from 15-26 minutes. Commissioner Kevin Cook said he has heard voters are able to get in and out in 5 minutes.

Around 50% of mail-in ballots have already been returned, Commissioner Kevin Cook said. The mobile ballot drop box the county rolled out has received 325 total ballots, according to Howell.

Howell said the surge in votes that have already been cast will have little impact on lines on Election D ay, and little impact on how quickly the votes will be counted. Howell said people should still vote sooner rather than later.

“People are energized,” Howell said. “We are seeing that on both the ballot front, mail side as well as tracking it in the office.”