Kings County elections officials reporting strong voter turnout for non-presidential election

The turnout appears to be heavy in most parts of the country as many states are reporting record turnout for a non-presidential election.

According to the Kings County Elections Department, as of Monday night (Nov. 5) there were 52,392 registered voters of which 42,410 were issued “vote by mail” ballots, and of those, by Monday night 14,040 had been accepted by the Elections Office.

Precinct volunteers handing out ballots at the Lemoore Presbyterian Church told The Leader that turnout was large for an off-year election. “There were lots of young people voting,” said Verna Norgaard, a longtime precinct volunteer.

“As of yesterday, we had received just over 14,000 ballots with 52,000 registered voters,” said a busy Kings County Clerk Kristine Lee on Tuesday who oversees the county’s elections. “Today we are extremely busy, and I do believe we will have a high turnout. Many people are registering and voting today, which is different that in the 2016 elections, so that is causing a lot of activity and adding votes.”

But Lee wasn’t quite ready to confirm a record-breaker. “I really am not sure that it will be record breaking, but still high for a non-presidential election.”

As a comparison a total of 22,763 persons voted in the 2014 off-year election, amounting to about 47.6 percent of the county’s 48,265 registered voters at that time. A total of 4,835 voters actually visited a precinct in 2014 while 17,928 Kings County residents voted by mail.