Hamilton County voters are casting early and absentee ballots at a rate 10 times that of the 2025 primary.
Before Election Day, 3.8% of the county’s registered voters had already voted in the 2026 primary. The previous 2025 primary election saw 0.38% of registered voters cast early ballots, according to the Secretary of State’s data.
In 2024, during a presidential election primary, more early and absentee voting was seen: 9,445 voters, or about 1.6%.
This year, the Hamilton County Board of Elections recorded 20,976 early and absentee ballots. Democrats cast 13,375 of those ballots, Republicans cast 7,648, and 9,544 were issue-only ballots.
The county has 602,251 registered voters in 2026, down from 607,289 in 2025.
Ohio has seen voter turnout shrink in recent years. A 2025 Harvard study found the state removed 109,119 voter registrations during the 90-day period before the 2024 general election, when federal law restricts such removals. Of those, 14,539 had no documented legal reason for the removal. Voters can legally be removed from rolls for reasons including death, moving out of state or being incarcerated for a felony conviction.
Turnout in Hamilton County for the May 2025 primary was 9%, with 12,352 early in-person votes cast. Statewide turnout that year was 11%.