Ohio sets early in-person voting record

Ohio set a record for early in-person voting, the secretary of state announced Tuesday.

“Our data team has been busy running the early voting numbers still coming in from the counties, and I’m thrilled to confirm today that Ohio set a new statewide record for in-person early voting,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote in a post on social platform X.

He added that 68 of the state’s 88 counties surpassed the early in-person numbers that the state hit in 2020.

Approximately 1.54 million people voted early in person this year in Ohio. Overall, approximately 2.57 million ballots were cast early, as of midday Tuesday, including the approximately 1.03 million absentee ballots returned by mail. Approximately 120,000 absentee ballots were still outstanding and can be counted if they arrive at their respective county boards of election within four days of the election.

Because the pandemic compelled many people to request absentee ballots, LaRose said he does not expect mail-in absentee ballots to surpass the 2020 record. He said, however, he is optimistic about voter confidence in casting ballots early.

“The record for mail-in voting will always be tough to beat due to the pandemic in 2020, but Ohio voters are showing increasing confidence in casting a ballot early,” he said. “Turnout today is brisk, so we’ll see what the final numbers show overall. Stay tuned.”

More than 82 million voters took advantage of early voting before Election Day kicked off. The number is slightly more than half the total turnout in the presidential election in 2020, The Associated Press reported.

As of Monday evening, the University of Florida Election Lab’s tracker showed that there have been more than 44 million in-person early votes cast and more than 37 million ballots returned. More than 67 million mail ballots had been requested, the data showed.

North Carolina and Georgia also set records for early voting numbers.