As election day has come and passed, the voter turnout in Ohio has already exceeded the 2018 primary as thousands of absentee ballots could still be counted by May 8.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is reporting 22.66 percent of registered voters in the state cast ballots in this year’s primary election, according to preliminary data. Compare that to 21 percent in 2018 and 43.66 percent in the last Presidential primary in 2016.
However, the oddity of this year’s election has left thousands of absentee ballots that still may be added to the final tally of votes before the official numbers are certified later this month.
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Here’s a breakdown of outstanding ballots by county in the Miami Valley:
- Auglaize: 498 absentee, 65 provisional
- Butler: 3,710 absentee, 1,291 provisional
- Champaign: 695 absentee, 130 provisional
- Clark: 1,509 absentee, 298 provisional
- Clinton: 358 absentee, 183 provisional
- Darke: 541 absentee, 137 provisional
- Greene: 8,403 absentee, 773 provisional
- Logan: 608 absentee, 115 provisional
- Mercer: 647 absentee, 138 provisional
- Miami: 1,858 absentee, 396 provisional
- Montgomery: 10,434 absentee, 1,703 provisional
- Preble: 793 absentee, 195 provisional
- Shelby: 993 absentee, 343 provisional
- Warren: 3,418 absentee, 683 provisional
Absentee ballots that were postmarked by April 27 can still arrive at local board of elections by May 8 to have those votes count in this year’s primary election.
Local boards will review any provisional ballots to see if they meet the criteria to be counted.
Local turnout for voters by county varied in the preliminary statistics released by LaRose’s office:
- Auglaize: 21.68%
- Butler: 18.44%
- Champaign: 27.54%
- Clark: 20.56%
- Clinton: 19.58%
- Darke: 23.04%
- Greene: 29.18%
- Logan: 22.45%
- Mercer: 27.80%
- Miami: 24.36%
- Montgomery: 18.66%
- Preble: 25.71%
- Shelby: 26.31%
- Warren: 28.07%