Strong Interest in Early Voting Here and Across Ohio

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Early voting is strong across Ohio with more than 1.6 million ballots returned by mail or voted in person and county elections offices in the Buckeye State.

According to numbers reported late Sunday by the Ohio secretary of state, 1.1 million absentee ballots have been requested with 729,150 returns. Early in-person voting totals 907,853 across Ohio.

Independents comprise the largest share of ballots requested – 1.09 million as of Sunday night. Republicans out-paced Democrats – 560,000 for voters registered as Republicans compared to 380,000 for Democrats

Elections officials in Trumbull and Columbiana counties are optimistic that about three-fourths of their counties’ registered voters would cast ballots in this year’s general election, based on early numbers. 

The elections chiefs of both counties – Trumbull’s Stephanie Penrose and Columbiana’s Kim Fusco – reported brisk activity at their respective boards of elections’ offices Friday, where early in-person voting was taking place. 

Based on the trends Penrose is seeing, she predicted overall turnout should be at 75% this year, which has both a tight presidential contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump as well as a competitive U.S. Senate race between Sherrod Brown, the Democratic incumbent, and Republican challenger Bernie Moreno. 

Turnout in 2016 was 69% in Trumbull County. 

The Ohio Secretary of State’s online database, as of its most recent update, reported absentee ballots were sent to 18,977 of Trumbull County’s 137,685 registered voters and 13,936 had been returned, for a 73% return rate. In addition, 13,581 votes were cast in person at the Trumbull County Board of Elections. 

The majority of the party’s voters – 65.2% – are unaffiliated with a political party, she said. Republican registrations slightly outnumber Democrats, with 18.5% affiliating with the GOP to 16.3% registering as Democrats.  

Penrose, who also noted the number of registered voters in the county has risen by a couple thousand from what it has been in recent years, reported Sunday afternoon that the numbers of county voters casting their ballots early was up to 14,509 as of Sunday.

The state database showed 4,651 ballots returned of the 7,055 requested in Columbiana County, for a 66% return rate, and 6,898 in-person votes. The county has 65,979 registered voters total. Of the 163,092 registered in Mahoning County, 17,044 cast ballots in person and 23,985 have requested absentee by mail ballots, of which 10,585 have been returned, for a 44% ballot return rate. 

Statewide, 1,132,660 absentee ballots have been requested by mail and 729,150 returned, for a 64% return rate. So far, 907,853 voters have cast in-person early ballots. 

“Ohioans know that it’s both easy to vote and hard to cheat here,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said in an emailed statement, “As a result, they are taking advantage of early and absentee voting in historic numbers, and we expect that trend to continue through election day.” 

As in Trumbull County, unaffiliated voters outnumber those who declare with a party, totaling 44,658. Republican-affiliated voters number more than 17,000 and just over 4,200 declare as Democrats.  

According to Fusco, 23,188 voted early by absentee and in person total in 2020. Turnout that year was just over 76% and she predicted this year should match or exceed that. 

“And we still have 10 days left,” she said Friday. “I originally guessed in my head we’d do 12,000 in office, but there might be a possibility we might even reach, you know, maybe even 15,000.” 

With extended hours starting last week, the Trumbull County board offices were averaging slightly more than 1,000 in-person voters per day, Penrose said. The county is on track to break the early voting record set in 2020 of about 19,000 votes cast early. 

“People really like to come and get it out of the way, get it done and scan their ballots themselves and just feel good about it,” she said. “I’s been gravitating that way for the last few years, even in the smaller elections.”

Fusco agrees some people like coming in to get their vote out of the way in the event they might get called out to work unexpectedly. 

“The volume has been really high,” she said. 

A lot of the interest in the election this year is media driven, Penrose said. 

“We have some polarizing candidates. I think that helps,” she said. “You either love them or you hate them.”

Penrose also said she wished more people were taking greater interest in local races, such as for county commissioner, sheriff, recorder and treasurer. “It would be great if people were taking a little more interest in that stuff,” she remarked.  

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.