Buoyed by record early and absentee voting, along with a steady stream of voters turning out to their polling locations today, Hamilton County’s unofficial turnout results eked past 2016 numbers.
It’s too early to tell if the extra voters in increasingly Democratic-leaning Hamilton County will be enough to push former Vice President Joe Biden past President Donald Trump, who won the state handily in 2016. Recent polls showed the two candidates neck and neck here, though polling leading up to the last presidential election was in many cases somewhat inaccurate.
Perhaps due to the historic number of early and mail-in ballots cast under the unique strain of the global COVID-19 pandemic, in-person voting across the county was mostly a quick affair, though some polling locations did experience lines and waits as long as an hour early in the day.
By mid-afternoon, things were moving quickly at the Mt. Airy polling location where Chris Avery cast his ballot. Avery, a Biden supporter, said it took him 15 minutes in total to vote.
Initially, Avery said he planned to cast a mail-in ballot. But he changed his mind after reading about potential problems with the U.S. Postal Service and statements by Trump suggesting he would attempt to invalidate mail-in ballots.
“I don’t trust all that,” Avery said. “I decided to come down here and cast my vote in person.”
Voters casting ballots around lunchtime at a polling place in Clifton had a similar experience; one walking out of the location at Annunciation Catholic Church called the process “unbelievably easy.”
“It’s been great,” said voter Chris Holland, who brought his kids along to witness voting first-hand. “Really laid-back, easy, everyone is helpful inside.”
Things took a little longer for other voters. Those who voted at the downtown branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County faced a line around the block shortly after polls opened, resulting in waits as long as an hour. Voters at one of two Lincoln Heights’ two polling locations also faced about a half-an-hour wait early in the day.
By the afternoon and evening, however, things were calm at those locations and at polling spots in Forest Park, Greenhills, Mount Auburn and others CityBeat visited.
There were other snags for a few voters, however. Over-the-Rhine resident Willa Jones showed up at her usual polling location near her home only to find a sign on the door saying it had moved to an unfamiliar location more than half a mile away in the West End.
A spreadsheet of polling locations made 60 days ago by the Hamilton County Board of Elections listed the new location at Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses on Findlay Street, but Jones said she didn’t get a card listing that location.
““They didn’t think about old folks,” she said. “No way I could walk down there.”
Jones, who doesn’t own a car, was able to secure a ride from a friend. She also noted she could have taken a Metro bus, which ran fare-free today for election day.
Once she arrived at her polling location, voting went smoothly.
“If I didn’t vote, I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight,” she said.
Though a somewhat higher number of Hamilton County voters turned out for this election than the last, voter turnout as a percentage of eligible voters may end up slightly lower this year than in 2016 due to an increase in the number of people who registered this time around.
Before lingering mail-in ballots are counted, about 70% of eligible voters cast ballots this time around. In 2016, that percentage was almost 72%.
That year, when Donald Trump won the nation’s electoral college partially on the strength of an eight-point win in Ohio, 417,456 voters turned out here in Hamilton County. This year, the unofficial count has clocked 420,430 voters, not including outstanding absentee ballots.
Holland, the voter in Clifton, said he hopes results come soon, but wasn’t willing to bet on it.
“I hope we have big states like Florida tonight, but who knows,” he said. “It may be a few days.”
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose this year has set Nov. 18 as the deadline for the state’s vote canvass, and a close contest could push final results right up to that deadline.
This article appears in The Gift Guide.