Long early-voting lines, record turnout expected in Wicomico this year

WICOMICO CO., Md. – Wicomico County Election officials are expecting an 80 to 85 percent voter turnout this election. Previously, the highest turnout in county history is 79 percent.

Officials are predicting that high turnout in part based off of the high number of mail in ballot applications they’re getting. As of Friday, Wicomico County had about 15-thousand mail in ballot applications requested. As of Monday, they’ve been able to process more than 8-thousand of those which is a record because previously the highest they’d ever processed before this election was 4-thousand back in 2008.

Even with all these mail in applications county officials are bracing for long lines next week. “We have to do six foot distancing, we’ve got to clean the machines and supplies after every voter. The election judges are going to do their very best but we certainly know that like other states are seeing, there will be long lines,” says Anthony Gutierrez with the Wicomico County Board of Elections.

Some people have seemed to express confusion about the locks on ballot drop off boxes but they do not mean the box is closed. It’s actually making sure the flap where ballots are dropped into, remains open.

There are about 64-thousand registered voters in Wicomico County and officials have to keep track of 54 ballot styles this year. Election officials say the best times to avoid long lines during early in person voting are mid day during the week, Saturday or Sunday. When it comes to Election Day, November 3rd, Wicomico voters can go to any one of the nine vote center locations across the county to cast their vote.