- Video shows Cierra Sowle, Jackson County Clerk & Register of Deeds, sharing early voting and absentee numbers for the November 2024 election and past elections.
- According to Sowle, for this November election, Jackson County had over 16,000 early voters vote in-person.
- That's compared to just under 700 early voters, each, for the February and August elections.
"I was anticipating maybe two or three times more than what we had seen this year, but in no way shape or form could I have ever predicted this," says Cierra Sowle, Jackson County Clerk & Register of Deeds. This election will be Sowle's sixth election as County Clerk, and she's never seen numbers like this.
This year is the first election cycle with early voting in Michigan. Sowle explains, "For this November election, we have over 16,000 early voters that have voted in-person. Those numbers are astronomically different." To put those numbers into perspective, according to Sowle:
- For the Presidential Primary Election in February, Jackson County saw 694 early voters.
- For the primary election in other races, in August, Jackson County saw 684 early voters.
"As clerk, I'm so excited to see people are using early voting," says Sowle. On top of that, Sowle says that they've received about 28,000 absentee ballots. "Those are huge numbers for our county," says Sowle.
Looking back to the November election in 2020, 65% of Jackson County voters voted in that election, overall. In this election, the county has already seen 34% of registered voters vote, all before election day. Sowle says, "We were ready with supplies. We were ready with workers. Our election workers volunteered to come in extra days, so we had some really great people helping us make this successful."
However, Sowle says, even with these early and absentee voters, that does not mean that lines at the polls on election day will be any shorter. "Be prepared for a line," says Sowle. "There are a lot of voters exercising their constitutional right this year. Just be respectful, listen to election inspectors on instructions."
Before heading to the polls, Sowle says:
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