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More than 800,000 Votes Cast in Ohio Through Oct. 19
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- More than 20,000 residents of Mahoning County have already cast their ballots in the Nov. 6 election, about 2.5% of the 800,000 early voters statewide. By comparison, in Trumbull County 13,367 residents have voted, either by absentee mail ballots on in person at the county's elections board. In Columbiana County, the number of early voters totals 5,335.
The numbers, released Tuesday by Ohio's secretary of state, Jon Husted, reflect early voting through the close of business Friday, Oct. 19.
Cuyahoga County leads the state with 118,485 early voters, or nearly 15% of the statewide total, followed by Franklin County with 115,959 early votes cast, or 14.5%. Montgomery County is third with 6% of the early votes; Lucas and Mahoning County share the fourth and fifth positions.
In the 2008 presidential election, 128,914 votes were cast in Mahoning County. If that number of ballots are cast this presidential election, as of Friday, 15.6% would be by early voters, according to Husted's report.
More than 1.6 million Ohioans have either cast or requested an absentee ballot, Husted notes.
Voters choosing the vote by mail option have until Nov. 3, at noon to request an absentee ballot from their board of elections. Voters who have already received an absentee ballot by mail must be returned postmarked by Nov. 5 or delivered in person to the county board of elections by the close of the polls on Election Day. It is important to note that if a voter has requested an absentee ballot by mail and then decides to vote in person on Election Day or during remaining early voting hours, they will be required to vote a provisional ballot.
A total of 7.9 million Ohioans are registered to vote, and nearly 6.9 million absentee ballot applications were sent out to Ohio voters during two statewide mailings. Based on an informal survey of Ohio’s 88 boards of elections, as of Oct. 19, nearly 1.43 million voters have requested absentee ballots to vote by mail, and of those 618,861 ballots by mail have been cast. Also, 18,681 military and overseas voters have requested ballots, of which 5,176 have been cast. Also as of Oct. 19, 189,190 Ohioans have cast an absentee ballot in person at the board of elections or designated early vote center.
Voters choosing to vote in person prior to Election Day can check voting hours available to them by visiting this website. Hours are uniform across the state.
SOURCE: Ohio Secretary of State.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.