WKSU Stories

Northeast Ohio Experiences Early Voting Spike Ahead of Midterms

Ideastream Public Media | By Nicholas Hunter

Published October 26, 2018 at 5:48 PM EDT

The University of Akron's new poll shows Ohio voters split almost evenly in most categories, except in their support of Sen. Sherrod Brown. He holds an 11 point lead over his challenger, Rep. Jim Renacci.

Early voting is seeing an uptick in several northeast Ohio counties this election season.

Regina Johnson, the coordinator for nursing home voting and early voting in Stark County, says the county had 2,483 early in-person voters in the last mid-term election. This year, 3,548 people have already voted in-person in Stark.

Faith Lyon, the director of Portage County’s Board of Elections, says 13,572 people have voted early or requested absentee ballots – an increase of about 3,000 from the last midterm.

She chalks up the influx of early voters to an increased interest in politics among potential voters and a lack of incumbents in nearly every statewide elected position.

“We have none of those incumbents rerunning for their office so it’s a completely open seat. There’s also, obviously, a lot of political tensions going on currently, which is bringing people out to the polls," Lyon said.

Check out WKSU’s Voter Resource Guide for election information.