Early voting in East Idaho was record-breaking ahead of the 2024 general election on Tuesday.
Election officials in Bannock, Bingham, and Power counties say a final push among early voters likely made totals for early and absentee votes, and in some cases same-day registrations, higher than ever.
“Friday was a great day for us,” said Bannock County Elections Director Julie Hancock. “It was exciting to see that many people came out to vote. We definitely broke some records.”
Hancock said early last week Bannock County was averaging a little over 800 early votes per day and she wasn’t sure if that number would eclipse the previous record of about 1,000 votes.
“But on Friday, a total of 1,272 people voted early,” Hancock said. “We usually walk in about 8,000 early voters total. This year we voted 11,352. We actually broke our record on Tuesday with a few days to go.”
In addition to the walk-in early votes at the Bannock County Elections office, Hancock said there were about 4,000 absentee ballots sent out, bringing the total of early voting ballots to more than 15,000.