In-person Republican voting rose sharply from four years ago, while this year’s decline from the June primary was much smaller.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Republicans cast nearly twice as many in-person early ballots ahead of Tuesday’s runoff as they did before Oklahoma’s 2022 runoff, State Election Board records show.
This year’s early vote also stayed much closer to the level recorded during the June primary. In 2022, Republican early voting fell by more than a quarter between the primary and runoff. This year’s decline was closer to one-tenth.
The comparison includes only in-person absentee voting, Oklahoma’s official term for early voting. Mail absentee ballots are not included because those totals are not yet known.
Early voting takes a larger share
Overall participation in this year’s Republican gubernatorial primary was only moderately higher than it was four years ago. Early in-person voting increased far more quickly.
That difference suggests the increase is partly about when Republicans are voting, not simply how many are participating.
The elections also featured different contests. The 2022 runoff ballot included a special U.S. Senate race between Markwayne Mullin and T.W. Shannon, along with several other statewide Republican runoffs. This year’s ballot is led by the gubernatorial contest between Attorney General Gentner Drummond and former state Sen. Mike Mazzei.
The early-voting totals offer no indication of which candidate received those votes. Nor can they show how many early voters otherwise would have gone to the polls Tuesday.
They establish two clear differences from four years ago: Republicans used early voting much more heavily, and the decline between the primary and runoff was considerably smaller.
