More than 551,000 Ohio voters have cast their ballots so far during early voting

COLUMBUS, Ohio – More than 551,000 voters have cast ballots in Ohio so far as of Thursday, with the 2024 elections less than three weeks away.

Data from the Ohio Secretary of State’s office shows that about 169,000 of the 1.1 million absentee ballots requested by Ohio voters already had been returned. Another 382,000 voted early in person at their local board of elections since early voting began on Oct. 8.

Election 2024: An Ohio guide to the November election

Absentee ballot requests and in-person voting so far are trending toward older, independent voters. About 1 million absentee requests or in-person votes came from those 55 and older. And about 790,000 came from unaffiliated voters. Of the partisans, 370,000 Republicans requested ballots or cast an in-person ballot as did 280,000 Democrats.

Around this time in the 2020 presidential election cycle, nearly 2.5 million absentee ballots had been requested. However, the coronavirus pandemic prompted huge demand for early and mail-in voting.

At roughly the same point in 2016, about 1.25 million absentee ballots applications had been received. In 2012, the figure was about 1.28 million.

Cuyahoga County has sent the most absentee ballots of any county in the state. So far, it has sent 161,000 ballots to voters who have requested them and seen about 27,000 of them cast. That leaves it with a return rate of about 6%.

It leads the state by county in terms of the number of unreturned ballots (134,000).

Franklin County, which has slightly more registered voters than Cuyahoga, has sent about 124,000 ballots and had about 10,000 returned, or about 8%. Hamilton County, the state’s third largest, has sent 73,000 ballots and had 18,000 returned.

Other northeast Ohio counties include:

Geauga: 12,534 ballots sent, 1,524 returned

Lake: 27,164 ballots sent, 3,327 returned

Lorain: 32,319 ballots sent, 5,142 returned

Medina: 19,249 ballots sent, 3,233 returned

Portage: 14,988 ballots sent, 2,595 returned

Summit: 57,850 ballots sent, 8,482 returned

Ohio voters generally have three ways to cast a ballot: by voting absentee, early in person at the county board of elections or by voting on Election Day at their precinct polling place. Early voting generally runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays for the first few weeks, but hours change on the weekend and as we get closer to Election Day.

Oct. 14-18: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Oct. 21-25: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Oct. 26: 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Oct. 27: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Oct. 28: 7:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 29: 7:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Oct. 30 – Nov. 1: 7:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 2: 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Nov. 3: 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.