Though there’s a bitter and expensive three-way race for the Republican nomination for US Senate on this March ballot, early absentee voting numbers for the month before election day are down from the last two non-presidential primaries in Ohio.
217,630 absentee ballots were requested by mail or in person this year, according to numbers posted by the Secretary of State’s office Sunday, the last day of early voting. The report notes 167,490 votes have been cast statewide.
That’s a decrease of around 28% from the 301,837 ballots requested by mail or in person in May 2022, when there was a seven-way primary for the Republican nomination for US Senate. The secretary of state's office reported then that 263,542 votes had been cast statewide.
That's also down from May 2018, when 300,765 ballots were requested by mail or in person. In that election, there were contested primaries for governor for both major parties. At that time, the secretary of state's office reported 260,443 votes had been cast statewide.
But the Secretary of State’s office reports an increase of 103,754 early in-person votes cast from 2022. There are 50,140 outstanding absentee ballots reported, but that number will change.
