By 1808Delaware
As early voting nears and is now less than one month away, the pace of absentee ballot requests is quickening.
Consistent with other parts of the state, more Democracts are submitting those applications than Republicans, according to information made available by the Ohio Secretary of State.
With 55 days to go until Election Day, Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that 1,000,579 absentee ballot applications have been received by county boards of elections statewide. This includes 14,253 requests from military and overseas voters whose absentee ballots will be mailed beginning Friday, September 18th. All other ballots will be mailed beginning October 6.
Ohio didn’t break the one million absentee ballot request threshold until 28 days before election day in 2016. All data is current as of September 4th.
“While we’re making sure voters will be able to safely vote in-person, this incredible demand for absentee voting speaks to the confidence Ohioans have in the system,” said LaRose. “It’s strong. It’s secure. And our county boards of elections are prepared.”
In July, Secretary LaRose sent 87% of Ohio’s $12.8 million CARES Act allocation directly to the county boards of elections to strengthen their election infrastructure, hire temporary personnel, and more.
Ohioans can learn more about absentee voting at VoteOhio.gov
Across the state, request from Democrats are outpacing those from Republicans, at least at this juncture. In Delaware County, 28,835 applications have been received, 8,972 from registered Democrats, and 5,979 from registered Republicans.
According to a report from WOSU, this result is indicative of other key counties in the state.
