Cuyahoga County Voter Turnout is Already Better Than Every Non-Presidential Election in the Past Decade

Shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections live voting tracker indicated that the county’s total turnout had eclipsed 45 percent.

That total, with more than two hours of voting remaining, is already the highest turnout in the county in non-presidential elections in more than a decade.

In 2010, the midterm elections during Barack Obama’s first term, total turnout was 44.17 percent. Every other non-presidential election year since then has been lower, with particularly ugly turnout numbers (around 30 percent) in the elections of 2013 and 2017, the Frank Jackson years. Last midterm elections, 2014, turnout countywide was 39.56 percent.

Here are the numbers, from the Board of Elections. With an after-work surge, a turnout percentage in the mid-50s seems well within reach:

Year: Total ballots cast / eligible voters (percentage turnout)
2009: 388,851 / 984,367 (39.50%)
2010: 432,052 / 978,267 (44.17%)
2011: 384,202 / 885,563 (43.39%)
2012: 650,437 / 927,996 (70.09%)
2013: 262,264 / 887,147 (29.56%)
2014: 350,534 / 886,098 (39.56%)
2015: 323,625 / 840,662 (38.50%)
2016: 617,356 / 891,568 (69.24%)
2017: 273,393 / 884,768 (30.90%)

Presidential election years in bold and italics.

This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2018.