Secretary Galvin Releases Unofficial Voter Turnout Numbers
With all 351 cities and towns having reported unofficial results for Tuesday's primaries, Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin has announced that more than 1.2 million voters participated in the Massachusetts Presidential Preference Primaries.
Unofficial tallies show that at least 1,119,876 voters cast their votes for President in the Democratic and Republican primaries on Tuesday. A small number of Libertarian votes pushes the total unofficial tally over 1.2 million, with more votes expected to be added later this week, as local clerks certify write-in votes, blank votes, and provisional ballots.
With more than 567,000 ballots cast, the turnout in the Republican Primary was the second highest in Massachusetts history, surpassed only by the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary. With more than 632,000 ballots cast, the turnout in the Democratic Presidential Primary was the highest in recent history in which an incumbent president was on the ballot.
The 2024 Presidential Preference Primary was the first such election since the current no-excuse Vote by Mail program began in Massachusetts. Of ballots cast in the Democratic and Republican primaries, only 51.8% were cast on Election Day. The remaining 48.2% of voters opted for early or absentee ballots, nearly all of which were cast by mail.
"There is little doubt that the availability of Vote by Mail ballots helped drive turnout in this primary," Galvin said today. "It is a testament to the success of our Vote by Mail program that nearly half of those who voted did so with a mail-in ballot."
Vote by Mail was a popular option among both major party voters. In the Democratic Primary, 62.5% of voters cast their ballots outside of polling places on Election Day, while 32.3% of Republican voters took advantage of mail or early voting.