Voter turnout remains high this election cycle in Summit and Wasatch counties, particularly with early voters.As of Monday, Summit County had received 19,983 ballots by mail and in-person early voting. With voter registration at nearly 30,000 people, over two-thirds of Summit County voters chose to vote early this year. In Summit County, 610 voters showed up in person to vote by noon Tuesday. Summit County Clerk Evelyn Furse expected low in-person voting numbers overall. “Usually, we have under 5% that like to vote in person,” said Furse. As of 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Wasatch County had received over 16,100 ballots, with 4,000 still to process. In Wasatch County, there are roughly 22,000 active, registered voters, including day of registration. That put Wasatch County turnout at 73% by mid-afternoon on Election Day.“We’re always going to process at least 35% more votes on a presidential election, it’s not surprising, but it is a challenge to plan for,” said Wasatch County Clerk-Auditor Joey D. Granger. Summit County exceeded the national voter turnout average by over 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 an all-time high voter turnout. A record-breaking 66% of eligible voters participated in the 2020 general election, according to the PEW Research Center. Voter turnout has consistently exceeded 90% over the past six years in Summit County, and Furse expected no difference in this presidential election. “I think it’s entirely possible that we’ll get up to 95%,” said Furse. Furse 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 presidential election in office.Summit County Clerk Eve Furse hands a pair of “I Voted” stickers to Jeff Herr during a tabling event on Vote Early Day last week. Credit: Park Record file photo by Clayton StewardThe Summit County office will continue to process ballots through Wednesday, until finished. “We are starting off the day with the statewide turnout at 53%,” said Lt. Gov. Deirdre Henderson in an X post Tuesday morning. She said 96% of Utah early voters cast their ballots by mail, with only 37,050 coming in person out of the 952,157 ballots processed. Four years ago, Utah’s early voting turnout was slightly higher at 54.1%. While Election Day in-person turnout is unpredictable and can increase ballot counts by hundreds of thousands, Utah had a lot to expect from registered voters this Election Day. In 2020, 90.09% of Utah’s active, registered voters cast ballots, higher than any other election in the past 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. Election turnout has been historically high in the neighboring Wasatch Back counties compared to the national average, yet only 33.6% of registered Democrats and 49.56% of registered Republicans in Wasatch participated in the 2024 presidential primary election in June. In Summit County, 38.7% of registered Democrats and 46.1% of registered Republicans voted in the presidential primary. Across the two counties, voter turnout has superseded the national average by almost 30%. With registered voters maintaining an average of over 85% turnout in the past six years, the neighbors help Utah remains at the helm of voter turnout across the country.The post Election turnout high again in Summit and Wasatch counties appeared first on Park Record.