Early voting continues

By WILLIAM KINCAID and SYDNEY ALBERT
newsroom@dailystandard.com

With just a few days to go until Election Day, turnout among registered voters in Mercer and Auglaize counties is nearing 50%, elections officials said.

The Mercer County early voting site in the courthouse auditorium on Thursday afternoon was abuzz with voters looking to cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday's presidential election. The site this week has averaged about 500 voters a day, board of elections director Deb Sneddon said.

"I would think that people are participating in this election more than they have any other election in my lifetime," Sneddon said.

As of Thursday afternoon, 12,860 absentee ballots had been cast in-person or by mail, deputy director Kristi Rable pointed out. The county should come close to posting 50% turnout by Election Day. The county has 29,410 registered voters.

"For four weeks we've been here every day, having voters come in," Sneddon said.

Since 1996, Mercer County's highest voter turnout for a presidential election occurred in the 2008 contest that pitted Barack Obama against John McCain. The turnout that election was 78.83%, per statistics provided by board of elections chairwoman Toni Slusser.

The second highest turnout was recorded in 2016 when Donald Trump faced off against Hillary Clinton. The rate was 76.6%. The lowest turnout of 68.14% came in 2004 election between George W. Bush and John Kerry.

As of Thursday afternoon, nearly 40% of the roughly 32,500 registered voters in Auglaize County had already cast their votes. Michelle Wilcox, director of that county's board of elections, said 12,438 people had voted either through mail-in ballots or in-person early voting. That's more than double the 6,122 absentee votes the county received in the 2016 presidential election.

Wilcox had predicted about 10,000 people would utilize early voting options, but that number has been surpassed. She said she expected to reach 13,000 votes cast by the end of Friday or on Saturday.

Total voter turnout is expected to be high this election, Wilcox said, even higher than the county's 76% voter turnout from the 2016 presidential election. For context, voter turnout in the range of 85% for a presidential election is considered high, according to Wilcox.

Even so, Election Day in Auglaize may not be overly busy. With 40% of possible ballots already cast, Wilcox expected maybe another 40% of voters to show up on Tuesday. She expected the smaller crowds would be great for poll workers and voters alike with no long lines and plenty of room to socially distance.

Early in-person voting continues in Mercer and Auglaize counties until 7 p.m. tonight, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday.

Requests to vote by mail must be in writing and received by the board no later than noon Saturday. Applications are available on boards of elections' websites.

Absentee ballots returned by U.S. Mail must be postmarked no later than Nov. 2 and received by boards of elections by Nov. 13 to be counted.

Ohio voters can cast absentee ballots by mail or in person before Election Day without giving a reason.