By Adam Pagnucco.
Early vote turnout in the 2024 general election was historically strong in both Montgomery County and Maryland, suggesting high turnout in the election overall.
Let’s start with the state as a whole. As of this writing, 994,663 voters from all parties have cast early votes in the 2024 general election. That exceeds the 987,373 early votes cast during the 2020 general election, which was the most cast until this year. As a percentage of the electorate, early votes accounted for 23.7% of eligible voters in this year’s general, slightly behind the 24.0% in the 2020 general.
The chart below shows early vote’s percentage of eligible voters in each statewide election since 2010, the first time early vote was used. Total voters are in green, Democrats are in blue, Republicans are in red and other voters are in purple.
Note how early vote turnout increases in presidential general elections. That follows the trend in all voting overall. 2020 was an unusual year because early vote was not used in the primary and the entire year was marred by COVID. On a statewide basis, Republicans have embraced early vote in the last two presidential general elections more than other voters.
Now let’s look at Montgomery County. As of this writing, 156,468 voters from all parties have cast early votes in the 2024 general election. That’s second-best, trailing the 2016 general election in which 160,992 early votes were cast. In this year’s general, 23% of eligible MoCo voters voted early, behind 2016’s mark of 25%.
The chart below shows early vote’s percentage of eligible voters in each MoCo election since 2010, the first time early vote was used. Total voters are in green, Democrats are in blue, Republicans are in red and other voters are in purple.
As with statewide elections, GOP voters have recently preferred this voting mode more than other voters. In the 2016 general election, however, it was Democrats who drove early voting. Now it seems that the Democrats prefer mail.
There is little point in comparing mail voting between the 2020 general election and this year’s general because of COVID, which greatly elevated mail in comparison to other voting modes four years ago. But let’s put it this way: as of this moment, at both the state and MoCo levels, the votes cast so far (combining early and mail) account for nearly 40% of eligible voters and slightly more than half of everyone who voted in the 2020 general election. The 2020 general had 75% turnout statewide and 80% turnout in MoCo. So with early voting looking strong and more mail ballots coming in every day, it seems that Marylanders understand the importance of this year’s election.