How did one Columbus voting poll have a 106 percent turnout?

Muscogee County had a remarkable turnout for Tuesday’s General Election, particularly in individual precincts.

Overall, the turnout in percentage of all registered voters fell behind previous presidential elections: 69,463 of 131,025 cast ballots, a turnout of 53 percent.

More residents voted in 2012: 70,962 out of 120,879, or 59 percent. And more voted in 2008 than in 2012: 74,428 out of 118,302, a turnout of 63 percent.

Readers may see reports of Columbus’ having a 69 percent turnout this year. That’s not the percentage of all voters registered here. It’s the percentage of what the state calls “active” voters in Muscogee County. They total 100,700.

Measure turnout by active voters during a hotly contested presidential election, and the numbers get skewed.

Take one of two voting precincts at St. Paul United Methodist Church, for example, which according to the unofficial tally somehow managed to have a turnout of 106 percent.

How is that possible?

It’s not. What happened is, the state set up the vote tallies to compute that turnout by “active” voters instead of all those registered. “Active” voters are those who voted in the last election, changed their registration or had some other business with the elections office.

That leaves a lot of registered voters who aren’t “active,” because they’ve not voted in local or midterm elections or had any reason to contact the elections office. Many vote only in presidential elections, so they become inactive over the intervening four years.

St. Paul is split into two precincts during congressional elections because its voters live in two different congressional districts, some in the 2nd and some in the 3rd. In this year’s tally, one of the two precincts in the 2101 Wildwood Ave. church was reported to have 915 voters, and 970 cast ballots.

Combine the split precinct — as we would for elections other than for Congress — and the St. Paul poll actually has 4,538 active voters and 5,837 registered. That makes the turnout 77 percent of active voters and 60 percent of all those registered.

That puts St. Paul back in line behind other Columbus precincts that had better turnouts. Topping the rankings was Wynnbrook Baptist Church at 500 River Knoll Way, which had a turnout of 83.6 percent of active voters and 71 percent of all registered.

Northside landslide

Two other north Columbus polls came close: The voting precinct at St. Mark United Methodist Church, 6795 Whitesville Road, had an active voter turnout of 81 percent, and a 68 percent turnout of all voters registered there. At the Psalmond Road Recreation Center, 6500 Psalmond Road, 81 percent of active voters cast ballots, and that was 67 percent of all those registered.

No other Columbus precinct topped 80 percent in active voter turnout, but a third north Columbus poll, at St. Peter United Methodist Church, 6507 Moon Road, had a 78 percent turnout of active voters and a 61 percent turnout of all registered. The Salvation Army precinct at 5201 Warm Springs Road also had a 78 percent turnout of active voters, 57 percent of all registered.

In fact all the polls with the heaviest turnout were on the north side of town:

• The St. Andrews Presbyterian Church at 4980 Hancock Road had a turnout of 77 percent of active voters and 58 percent of all registered.
• The voting poll at the Cornerstone Church of God, 7701 Lloyd Road, had a 77 percent turnout of active voters and 58 percent of all registered.
• The so-called “Moon-Morningside” precinct voting at the North Highland Assembly of God, 7300 Whittlesey Blvd., had a 76 percent turnout of active voters and 58 percent of all registered.
• At the Britt David Baptist Church precinct, 2801 Britt David Road, 76 percent of active voters cast ballots, which was 55 percent of all those registered there.

Only one poll on the south side of town topped 70 percent in active voter turnout.

At the St. John A.M.E. Church at 3980 Steam Mill Road, had a 70.16 percent turnout of active voters, which was 56 percent of all registered there.

This story was originally published November 10, 2016 at 5:35 PM with the headline "How did one Columbus voting poll have a 106 percent turnout?."