An image of a voter holding a #VOTED sticker.

Limestone County voters appear to have once again turned out in a higher percentage than the state average.

“Based on what we saw [Tuesday] morning and throughout the day I’m guessing we’re going to be in the low 40 percent turnout. If we got a late after work rush we could possibly move up in the mid-40s,” said Probate Judge Charles Woodruff. “The information that was relayed to me from people that were watching on the state level anticipated it might not hit 40 statewide because there were some counties that did not have big morning crowds from what I was told.”

For the last ten years, voters in the county have hit the polls at a higher percentage than the state in not just general but primary and runoff elections. Which means that with the growth in the county, citizens have maintained their civic duty by exercising their right to vote.

The general trend in the country is increasing voter turnout in general elections, especially in presidential years. The Census Bureau reported the 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout of the 21st century at 66.8 percent. That may be true of the nation, but looking at the state of Alabama alone, voter turnout was actually higher in the 2012 presidential election. With a 63 percent turnout in the 2020 race being not slightly, but a whole ten points lower than the 73 percent turnout in 2012. and when it comes to Limestone County, traditionally voter turnout follows and even beats that of the state.

So what’s Limestone up to in 2022? The same old stuff. In the general election, results were still rolling in as of press time, but Limestone seemed to be on track to beat the state yet again. Voters did it in both the primary in May and the runoff in June. The total turn out in the state for the primary was 23.4 percent, while Limestone’s turnout was 29.46 percent. In the runoff, turn out in the state was 12.8 percent while the county’s was 18.54 percent. For just a little further perspective, Limestone’s turnout in the 2022 primary and runoff also was the highest of each of the surrounding counties.

Limestone County was just outside of the top ten for turnout among counties in the state for the primary runoff. They rang in it at number 12 with their 18.5 percent coming in behind Winston at number 11 with 21.6 percent. Every county in the top ten had more than 22 percent turnout. But no county in that group had anywhere close to the registered voter population that Limestone county has. Limestone has more than 72 thousand registered voters, while no one in that top ten list cracked 30 thousand. Dallas county, at number 10, was the closest to that with more than 29 thousand registered voters. And, for the record, no other county in the list even topped 15 thousand.

“We could be one of the higher [counties], which routinely we are usually in the top third of the 67. Sometimes we’ve been as high as the top five or ten,” Woodruff said. “We’ve been in the top twenty in the almost ten years I’ve been in office for general elections and even primaries sometimes.”

Limestone’s got a long history of showing up with a better percentage than the state in voter turnout percentage, and not just in Presidential years, as these 2022 midterms show. In the general election in 2018, the state had a 50 percent turnout while Limestone was just slightly over that with 53.8 percent. The 2016 presidential election was a similar 3 percentage point difference. But in 2014, Limestone’s percentage was more than 7 points higher.

While there’s less of a difference in the primary runoff percentages for the last two races, Limestone’s is still slightly higher in those races as well. But 2014 and 2012’s runoff were dismal at the state level, not even reaching one percentage point. Limestone did much better those years comparatively, reaching 10 percent in 2014 and 4 percent in 2012. and when it comes to primaries, it’s more of the same.

The fastest growing county in Alabama has citizens exercising their right to vote at a higher rate than that of the entire state, election after election, year after year. As the Limestone County elections website says in the header, “your vote counts.”

“When we have voter turnout that just means we were efficient in what we were doing and that’s always a good election day,” Woodruff said.