Though Election Day doesn’t arrive until Nov. 5, voting is now underway in Wyoming.

Early and absentee voting began Tuesday and got off to a hot start in Park County.

While the opening day of early voting is typically slow, the Park County Courthouse in Cody was hopping on Tuesday, with 198 local voters casting their ballots.

The elections office is set up as a miniature polling place, and county residents with photo ID can vote there from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, through Nov. 4. (On Election Day itself, voters need to go to their designated polling place.)

Absentee voting also began Tuesday, with roughly 2,475 residents requesting ballots by mail as of the start of this week. Absentee ballots can be picked up at the elections office or requested by mail through Nov. 4, but to be counted, they must be returned to the office by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Census and election data suggests about 64% of the county’s voting age population is currently registered to vote. Heading into this month, Park County had 15,645 registered voters, including 13,641 Republicans (87.2%), 999 unaffiliated individuals (6.4%) and 890 Democrats (5.7%).

County residents can register or update their registration — such as to record an address change — at the courthouse in Cody, at Powell City Hall or at Meeteetse Town Hall through Oct. 21. Voters can also register or make changes to their registration at the time they vote.

The county will operate the same polling places on Election Day as it did in August’s primary election. Powell, Garland and Willwood area voters cast their ballots at Heart Mountain Hall at the Park County Fairgrounds.

As part of its preparations, the clerk’s office held a public test of its voting equipment on Sept. 19 and 20. One Republican and three Democrats attended, said First Deputy Park County Clerk Hans Odde.

The testing conducted ahead of August’s primary election had to be redone, after Republican officials noticed that, in violation of state law, the initial “deck” of sample ballots used by multiple counties resulted in identical vote totals for different candidates. Thanks to the changes made for the primary testing, the problem was avoided with Park County’s deck for the general.

“All the tests came out just fine,” Odde said.

Wyoming’s early and absentee voting period used to start 45 days ahead of the election, but state lawmakers pared it back to 28 days with this cycle.

For more information about the local election, visit parkcounty-wy.gov/county-elections.