The 2016 election was a roller coaster — and, perhaps as a result, plenty of people in Hamilton County are willing to stand in some long lines for another ride this year.
Early voting turnout has soared since the polls at the Hamilton County Board of Elections opened Oct. 10, breaking records for turnout in a midterm election.
All told, more than 87,500 people voted early in person or cast absentee ballots by mail, a huge 74 percent increase in turnout from the last midterm in 2014. That turnout was less than early voting in the 2016 presidential election, however, when more than 106,000 people voted early.
On Friday afternoon, the line of voters at the Hamilton County BOE headquarters in Norwood stretched well outside the door, though the wait was a reasonable 15-20 minutes. More than 2,500 people went through the line that day — a single-day record, according to the BOE.
Another 2,474 people voted the next day. The line of waiting voters wrapped around the building and brought the overall in-person early voting total in the county to 21,000 people. With absentee ballots included, more than 95,000 ballots were processed as of Saturday. Only about 61,000 voters had cast ballots by the same point leading up to the last midterm elections in 2014.
Roughly 1,450 people came out to vote during the BOE’s four hours of early voting Sunday, with some braving waits more than two hours long. Monday’s totals aren’t in yet, but it’s clear that this year, marked as it is by pitched battles around actions and words from President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans controlling both the U.S. House and Senate, is something unique.
Usually, the midterms are a lot sleepier than presidential elections, but not this time. About 27,000 people cast early, in-person ballots for the presidential elections at the Hamilton County BOE in 2016, election officials say — not that many more than in this election when it was all said and done today.
“For a midterm election, this is definitely historic,” BOE Director of Elections Sherry Poland told Channel 5 Saturday. “This has broken all records for early in-person voting for a midterm. The numbers are closer to presidential.”
Both Republican and Democratic Parties have ratcheted up their talking points and extra efforts to get voters off the sidelines.
On Sunday, hundreds of voters came out not only to cast a ballot but also to catch a glimpse of R&B star John Legend, who was stumping for Democratic congressional hopeful Aftab Pureval and helping lead a march to the BOE.
Those turnout efforts — and a near-existential crisis for Democrats without control of either law-making body in Congress or in the Ohio State House — seem to be motivating voters who lean blue.
Early voting turnout for registered Democrats has been higher this year than among Republicans or independents in Hamilton County.
After days in the high hundreds, more than 1,000 Democrats turned out for early voting Nov. 2, and a similar number turned out Nov 3. Independent voters haven’t been too far behind, but turnout for registered Republicans has been under 500 voters a day.
Of course, any number of those independent voters could be voting red — and with almost 600,000 eligible voters in Hamilton County, turnout on election day could make the contest anyone’s ball game. Beyond that, some races — like the contest between Pureval and incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot — hinge on more than just Hamilton County. In deep-red Warren County, also part of Chabot’s district, Democrats are turning out in numbers closer to 2016 than a midterm. But there are four times as many registered Republicans as Democrats in Warren County — making Pureval’s task of picking up enough votes in the county to win the district a daunting one.
Early voting ended today at 2 p.m., but voters can cast ballots at their polling locations throughout the county from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. tomorrow. Find your polling location here.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 7, 2018.