COLUMBUS — More than 1.45 million ballots have been cast for Tuesday’s vote-by-mail Ohio Primary, Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office reported Monday evening, and there are 516,870 outstanding absentee ballots.
Monday was the final day to mail in ballots for the extended Ohio Primary. A ballot mailed in must be postmarked April 27 to be counted under Ohio law.
Ohioans can also drop off completed ballots in the secure drop box at their board of elections until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that 1,975,806 Ohioans have requested a vote-by-mail ballot and 1,458,936 voters have cast their ballot. In the week since the last reported numbers, there has been a 50% increase in votes cast -- more than 480,000 ballots.
”In a matter of weeks, we’ve done something that’s taken other states years to do – transform our state into one capable of voting entirely by mail,” LaRose said in a statement released Monday evening. “But voters, you can’t delay a moment longer. Get your ballots in the mail today or drive to your county board of elections tomorrow [Tuesday] before 7:30 p.m. and put them in their secure drop box.”
In response to reports of serious mail delays last week, LaRose worked with Ohio’s Congressional delegation and spoke with the U.S. Postal Service’s Deputy Postmaster about putting in place improvements to speed delivery of election related mail.
As of Monday, according to LaRose’s office, 265,802 ballots were requested in person, and there are 516,870 outstanding absentee ballots.
Data was collected by LaRose’s office via a survey of Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections. Data as of the end of the vote-by-mail ballot request deadline at noon April 25, includes the following:
- Ballots cast: 161,783 (Democratic); 96,309 (Republican); 1,979 (Libertarian); 5,731 (non-partisan)
- Ballots requested: 1,010,374 (Democratic); 841,528 (Republican); 7,718 (Libertarian); 116,186 (non-partisan)
- Ballots mailed: 602,832 (Democratic); 516,045 (Republican); 1,915 (Libertarian); 72,342 (non-partisan)
Beside Tuesday’s presidential primary, there are a number of local races to be decided as well.
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