After the fourth day of early voting, almost one quarter of registered voters in Monroe County had already cast or mailed in their ballots.

Early voting started Saturday and by the end of the day Tuesday, 44,683 voters had cast their ballots at early voting sites, with 14,018 of them voting on Tuesday alone, according to the county Board of Elections. By that point the board had also received 71,017 absentee ballots.

Monroe County has 481,448 registered voters and the end of day Tuesday numbers represented a 24 percent turnout.

“Voters continue to amaze and impress us with their level of participation and enthusiasm during early voting,” Democratic Elections Commissioner Jackie Ortiz said in a statement. “We continue to encourage all voters to take advantage of the convenience early voting provides to all voters, especially now during this pandemic.”
Monroe County generally has high voter turnout during presidential elections. In 2016, 76.3 percent of the county’s registered voters cast a ballot, according to county Board of Elections records. The turnout was 76.8 percent in 2012 and 81.1 percent in 2008.

Early voting continues through Nov. 1. Registered voters in Monroe County can cast their ballots at any of the twelve early voting sites in the county monroecounty.gov/elections-earlyvoting.

Voters can also drop absentee ballots off at the early voting sites and at the Board of Elections office at 39 West Main Street.

Jeremy Moule is CITY's news editor. He can be reached at jmoule@rochester-citynews.com.