ST. CROIX — A concerted effort by younger residents to get their peers to vote has gained traction as evidenced in the Democratic primary early voting statistics.
A comparison of early voting data from the Elections System of the Virgin Islands shows that turnout among voters under 35 grew faster than any other age group between the 2022 and 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primaries — even as older voters continued to cast the large majority of early ballots.
Early voting participation surged territory-wide in the 2026 Democratic primary, with 7,113 voters casting ballots early — 34% of active registered Democrats — compared to 4,418 in 2022, an increase of 61%. St. Croix accounted for 3,461 of this year’s early votes and St. Thomas 3,444, with St. John contributing 208.
Every age bracket saw more early voters in 2026 than in 2022. But the pace of that growth varied sharply by age, and it was the youngest brackets that grew fastest, even though they remain the smallest share of the early-voting electorate.
The 18-to-24 bracket nearly tripled in size, growing from 67 early voters in 2022 to 209 in 2026 — a 212% increase. The 25-to-34 group grew by 133%, and the 35-to-44 group grew by 108%. Combined, early voters under 35 grew from 246 to 626, a jump of about 155%, while voters under 45 altogether more than doubled, from 588 to 1,339.
By contrast, voters 45 and older — who still cast the overwhelming majority of early ballots in both years — grew a combined 51%, from 3,830 to 5,774. The 45-to-54 bracket posted the smallest percentage increase of any age group, up 36%. It also fell from the third largest early-voting age group in 2022 to the smallest among voters 45 and older in 2026.
The net effect: younger residents still make up a small fraction of the early-voting pool — voters under 35 were less than 9% of all early ballots cast in 2026 — but that share has grown, up from about 5.6% in 2022. Voters 55 and older, meanwhile, continued to account for roughly two-thirds of all early votes in both elections, though their share of the total dipped slightly, from about 68% in 2022 to about 66% in 2026.
The increase in youth participation was not confined to one island. In the 18-to-24 bracket, St. Croix early voters more than quadrupled, from 25 to 110, while St. Thomas nearly two-and-a-half times over, from 39 to 95. St. John’s youth turnout, while numerically small, also grew, from three voters age 18 to 24 in 2022 to four in 2026, and from three to four in the 25-to-34 bracket.
The data suggests that campaigns and groups encouraging younger residents to vote early may be gaining some traction, even if older voters continue to dominate turnout in raw numbers.
Democrats who did not cast a ballot during early voting can still vote at any voting center in their district on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. St. Croix voters can go to the David C. Canegata Recreational Center and Sports Complex, Claude O. Markoe Elementary School, or the St. Joseph Hospitality Lounge. St. Thomas voting centers are Charlotte Amalie High School (Sprung), the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School cafeteria, and the Elridge Blake Sports and Fitness Center at the University of the Virgin Islands. St. John voters can go to Julius Sprauve Elementary School or the Guy Benjamin Community Center.
