Almost 700,000 Ohioans cast ballots in the early voting period leading up to the Aug. 8 special election on the constitutional amendment to make it harder to pass future amendments. More than 118,000 Ohioans voted early, either by mail or in person, during the last three days of early voting alone on Issue 1.
Early absentee ballots began to be sent out on June 23, and the first ballots were returned five days later. Since then, 696,905 Ohioans voted early by mail or in person at county early voting centers. That’s already more than the 638,708 Ohioans who voted in the legislative primary last August. And it's more than twice the around 289,000 Ohioans who voted early in the primaries in May 2022, in which seven Republicans and three Democrats were running for their parties' nominations for U.S. Senate, and both parties also had contested primaries for governor.
The only question on the ballot was Issue 1.
Traditionally, results have shown Democrats are more likely to take advantage of the early vote option. But Republicans also pushed their supporters to vote early, and it had an effect in Ohio's red counties. For instance, in Delaware County, early voting quadrupled over May 2022. Early voting was up all across the state:
- urban counties: 295,651 vs. 102,428
- suburban counties: 118,344 vs. 38,284
- rural counties: 277,004 vs. 121,581
