County election board says voter turnout is high for early voting so far
LANCASTER − The Fairfield County Board of Elections is seeing a high number of early voters.
Deputy director Jane Hanley said voter participation could be around 55% this year based on those numbers. She said previous off-year elections have seen about 30% participation. That has prompted the board to bring in a few extra employees to handle the workload.
Election Day is Tuesday.
As of Oct. 27, 4,887 people had voted early at the board of elections office at 951 Liberty Drive. Hanley said there are around 400 to 500 voters there each day with small lines sometimes forming.
The board of elections has sent out 1,861 mail-in ballots with voters returning 1,687 of them. The board has received 19 overseas ballots with 18 outstanding still. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Sunday. Voters can also put them in the drop box outside of the election board office until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
This year's ballot features Issue 1, which pertains to abortion access in Ohio. Voters are also voting on whether to allow the recreational use of marijuana with Issue 2. But Hanley said she didn't know if those issues are what is driving the numbers up.
"Nobody's really saying why," Hanley said. "They're just coming to vote."
The local election board on Tuesday night must report all election results to the state and update its website every 30 minutes once workers start tabulating the results.
The election board office will open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. through Friday for early voting. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Sunday will be the last day for early in-person voting at the office.
Polling locations across the county will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Visit www.boe.ohio.gov/fairfield for complete voting information. Hanley said the board will update its website Monday morning so voters can find their polling locations.
jbarron@gannett.com
740-681-4340
Twitter: @JeffDBarron
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Early voting numbers point to high turnout on Tuesday locally
