As the deadline to register to vote for the November election approaches, a report shows Boone County had the lowest voter turnout in the state in August’s primary election. According to statistics from the secretary of state, only 16.7 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in August, compared to 23.2 percent statewide.
John Petrocik, Chair of the MU Political Science Department, says the turn out in the primaries here tends to be pretty low.
“They don’t get a lot of attention people don’t think anything is at stake campaign’s aren’t very noisy," Petrocik says. "Turnouts in most local elections can be as low as 10 or 12 percent and primary elections fall in that interval typically down at the low end. Sometimes they can be very low.”
Petrocik predicts these numbers will be different in the upcoming presidential election. The last day to register to vote for the presidential election is Oct. 10.