By Adam Pagnucco.

Early voter turnout for the 2024 general election was historically high in both Montgomery County and Maryland, suggesting high voter turnout overall.

Let's start with the state as a whole. As of this writing, 994,663 voters from all parties have cast their early votes in the 2024 general election. That exceeds the 987,373 early votes cast in the 2020 general election, which was the highest number until this year. In terms of the electorate, early voters in this year's General Assembly made up 23.7% of eligible voters, slightly less than the 24.0% in the 2020 General Assembly.

The chart below shows the percentage of eligible voters using early voting in each statewide election since 2010, the first time early voting was used. The total number of voters is shown in green, Democrats in blue, Republicans in red, and the remaining voters in purple.

Notice how early voter turnout increases in general presidential elections. This follows the trend across all votes overall. 2020 was an unusual year as there was no early voting in the primary and the entire year was dominated by COVID. Nationally, Republicans have been more supportive of early voting than other voters in the last two presidential elections.

Now let’s look at Montgomery County. As of this writing, 156,468 voters from all parties have cast their early votes in the 2024 general election. This is the second best figure, behind the 2016 general election, in which 160,992 early votes were cast. At this year's General Meeting, 23% of MoCo's eligible voters voted early, down from 25% in 2016.

The chart below shows the percentage of early voting eligible voters in each MoCo election since 2010, the first time early voting was used. The total number of voters is shown in green, Democrats in blue, Republicans in red, and the remaining voters in purple.

As with statewide elections, Republican voters have recently favored this mode of voting more than other voters. However, in the 2016 general election, it was Democrats who pushed early voting. Now it appears that Democrats favor the postal service.

It makes little sense to compare postal voting between the 2020 general election and this year's general election, as postal voting rose sharply four years ago compared to other types of voting. But let's put it this way: At this point in time, the votes cast so far (early and postal voting combined) at both the state and MoCo levels represent almost 40% of those eligible to vote and just over half of all those eligible to vote in the 2020 parliamentary election. The Voter turnout in the 2020 general election was 75% nationwide and 80% in the MoCo. With early voting looking good and more mail-in ballots coming in every day, Marylanders appear to have grasped the importance of this year's election.