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Final Early Voting Numbers Show Requests For Democratic Ballots Still Leading Those For Republicans

Karen Kasler

The final early voting numbers before Election Day are in and Ohio has seen a larger turnout through absentee ballot than in the last gubernatorial primary.

It’s easy to guess that this year’s hotly contested races for the Republican and Democratic nomination for governor has led to the bigger turnout from voters.

More than 260,000 people cast absentee ballots, either by mail or in-person. That’s an increase of about 60,000 people compared to 2014, when there weren't any competitive races for either party on the primary ballot. 

Democrats, who are deciding among six candidates for governor, cast more than 132,000 ballots, while Republicans, who have races for governor and US Senator on their statewide ballots, cast 113,000 absentee votes.

Absentee ballots are the first to be counted when the polls close. Turnout is likely to be less than 30 percent.

Copyright 2018 The Statehouse News Bureau

Andy Chow is a general assignment state government reporter who focuses on environmental, energy, agriculture, and education-related issues. He started his journalism career as an associate producer with ABC 6/FOX 28 in Columbus before becoming a producer with WBNS 10TV.