Patrick Kilbourn drops off his mail-in ballot at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019.
SALT LAKE CITY — There’s just one week until election day and early voter turnout numbers aren’t very encouraging.
According to the state elections office, only about 12% of voters had returned their ballots as of Monday morning.
Utah County Clerk Josh Daniels said besides the senate race, there’s not a lot of races driving people to vote.
“We’re on track for certainly a lower turnout than the 2020 presidential election, and perhaps a even a lower turnout than the last midterm election. in 2018,” said Daniels.
Another reason for the low turnout is this year’s ballot doesn’t have any major initiatives on it and there’s no presidential race driving people to vote.
Voters have until Monday, Nov. 7 to put their ballot in the mail or in a Dropbox by Tuesday.
“We don’t have anything to really compare this election to because in 2014, we had traditional polling places, and that isn’t a good comparison,” said Salt Lake Clerk Sherrie Swenson.
However, clerks say that large amounts of ballots typically come in this weekend and on election day.