Over 88,000 Franklin County residents have voted early, which is up compared to previous midterm election years amid heated Ohio's gubernatorial and senate races.
According to data on the Ohio Secretary of State website, over 88,000 early ballots have been cast this election cycle either in-person or through mail, which Franklin County Board of Elections Director Antone White said is at a higher rate than midterm elections in 2022 and 2018.
Overall, he said he expects turnout to be higher this midterm cycle.
The 2026 midterms feature a contentious race for governor between Democrat Amy Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and a similarly heated one for U.S. Senate that likely have voters eager to help settle them.
Early voting began on Oct. 6.,
and voters can cast their ballots at county boards of election in Ohio from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through Oct. 23, with Saturday voting beginning Oct. 24 and expanded hours during the final week. Early in-person voting ends Nov. 1. The full voting calendar for the Nov. 3 election is available online at the Ohio Secretary of State's office website.
Over 920,000 voters have cast ballots so far across Ohio.
As of Oct. 22, nearly 44,500 people had voted early in person and nearly 44,000 had returned early mail-in ballots in Franklin County. White said that in 2018, there were around 54,000 early in-person votes total. By the end of Oct. 23, he said he expected there to be around 50,000 early in-person votes as he expected early voting at the Board of Elections office to cross 5,000 people for the day.
Compared to 2022, White said, he expects the early in-person voter rate to be over twice as high this year. In 2022, only 48,000 voted early in-person although the mail-in ballots trended slightly higher.
Generally speaking, mail-in voting has declined year-over-year since the height of the pandemic, he said.
"This year, it's trending much higher for early in-person," White said.
Higher in-person numbers have led to longer lines at the Franklin County Board of Elections office on Morse Road. On Oct. 23, the line was 45 minutes long. White, however, said voting is always heavy on Fridays.
"Any time you can come up (to the office), we're going to vote you pretty quickly," White said. "The line doesn't stop moving."
Cole Behrens covers K-12 education and school districts in central Ohio. Have a tip? Contact Cole at cbehrens@dispatch.com or connect with him on X at @Colebehr_report
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County early voting numbers on track to top recent midterms
