Early voting began in Ohio on Oct. 6, and the Secretary of State’s office released figures that show in-person voting so far is way up from this point in the 2022 midterm elections.
As of Tuesday, Ohio voters had cast 194,841 early ballots in person, compared to 50,368 in-person ballots after a week of early voting in 2022. By Thursday of this week that number was up to 272,329. The numbers refresh daily on the state’s election dashboard.
But at the one-week mark this year, 631,079 absentee ballots had been requested by Ohioans, compared to 871,041 at that point four years ago. So the question is are more Ohioans voting, or are they voting differently? Until recently, President Trump has railed against mail-in voting, and sought to restrict it in the midterm election, despite overwhelming evidence that it is a safe and reliable way to vote.
Democrats in Ohio have a lead in the number of ballots returned, about 145,500 ballots so far; unaffiliated voters have returned about 122,270 and Republicans have returned 105,616.
In Franklin County, Ohio’s most populous jurisdiction and home of state capital Columbus, the tally of votes cast after one week is more than 40% of the county’s total vote count in the 2022 election. And in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, the number of ballots cast so far is 45% of the county’s 2022 total. Kamala Harris won both counties in 2024, even as Trump won the state for the third time.
Ohio has moved back into swing state status this year after several election cycles as a GOP stronghold. Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is seeking to return to the Senate and has maintained a lead in the latest polls over GOP opponent Sen. Jon Husted.
A Brown victory could be key to helping Democrats regain control of the upper chamber. And former state health secretary Amy Acton has maintained a slight lead over Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the gubernatorial race. If she wins Acton would be Ohio’s first Democratic governor elected since 2006.
(Photo: Sherrod Brown, via Sherrod Brown Facebook)