“What we are seeing is a modest increase in early voting,” Clark County Board of Elections deputy director Amber Lopez said.
Clark County Board of Elections director Jason Baker said the office expects a voter turnout of roughly 55%, slightly higher than 2018 midterm turnout of 54%.
As of last week, the board was waiting on more than 2,000 outstanding ballots. Voters who requested an absentee ballot will need to return it by 7:30 p.m. to the office on Election Day, or make sure it is postmarked by Nov. 7. They cannot take those ballots to the polls on Tuesday, Lopez said.
Champaign County has seen an influx of early voters this midterm with more than 4,400 early ballots, both in-office and absentee as of Thursday, according to the Champaign County Board of Elections.
Election board director Meredith Bodey said her staff is expecting a higher voter turnout – up to 65% – this year than with other non-presidential general elections. Drawing people to the polls this year in addition to state issues and races is a contest for Champaign County commissioner, where term-limited state representative Nino Vitale (R-Urbana) is facing off with write-in candidate Todd Woodruff.
“People really care about those very local races,” she said.
The final hours of in-person early voting are from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at all county election board offices across Ohio.
Traditional Election Day voting will be offered at polling stations Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Non-presidential general elections typically see a lower voter turnout than races that feature presidential candidates for a variety of reasons, said Staci Rhine, political science professor at Wittenberg University. But the 2018 midterm boasted a higher turnout than past elections, with an Ohio voter turnout of 54.4, the highest the state has seen in more than 20 years for a midterm, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.
Voters in rural areas already face barriers for voting: lack of transportation, not being able to cast a ballot on Election Day due to inflexible work schedules and more. But voters nationwide also face the obstacle of a lack of information about what’s on their ballots, Rhine said.
Midterm elections often see regional and local races – state senate and state representative races, for example – that aren’t highly publicized in the way national races are.
“When there isn’t as much information, potential voters aren’t getting the cues to vote or to connect it to what they’re doing, which is probably why turnout is lower,” Rhine said.
Poor information distribution, too, impacts judicial races. Clark County has one local judicial race on the ballot this year as three candidates – Brian Driscoll, Bob Lancaster and Regina Richards – compete for a Common Pleas judge seat.
Fewer voters complete sections that deal with judicial candidates because they are unsure of their backgrounds and only see their names on the ballot.
“As you go further down the ballot, fewer people will complete the ballot, because they don’t know, because they’re not sure who the people are… they don’t know those races,” Rhine said.
For Voters Guide information on key state and local races, go to SpringfieldNewsSun.com/elections
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