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Early votes in Ohio’s Nov. 7 election on reproductive rights and marijuana are up over August’s vote

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — With just over a week of early voting left before election day on Nov. 7, the numbers are ahead of where they were for the Aug. 8 special election. Turnout was expected to be strong for this November’s odd-year vote, which features no statewide candidates but issues related to reproductive rights and marijuana.

A poll worker helps a voter to a machine at Franklin County's early voting center in Columbus on Sunday, March 15. In-person voting for the March 17 primary was cancelled the next day and the mail-in deadline was extended to April 28.
A poll worker helps a voter to a machine at Franklin County’s early voting center in Columbus on Sunday, March 15. [Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau]
At 24 days into early voting, 384,768 people have cast ballots early, including 236,468 who’ve voted in person. The Secretary of State’s office provides early voting totals starting from Sept. 22, when the first absentee ballots were sent out. In-person early voting began on Oct. 11. That day 16,122 people cast ballots at Ohio’s 88 boards of elections.

At 24 days into early voting in August, when voters defeated an amendment that would make it harder to change the constitution in this election and future ones, 354,992 Ohioans had voted early.

This election features Issue 1, a constitutional amendment on reproductive rights and abortion access, and Issue 2, a law to legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana.

The Secretary of State’s office provides early voting totals starting from Sept. 22, when the first absentee ballots were sent out. In-person early voting began on Oct. 11, when 16,122 people cast ballots at Ohio’s 88 boards of elections.

There aren’t any recent statewide issue elections in odd years to compare this to. But with a week to go in early voting last year for governor and U.S. Senate last year, 817,644 absent votes had been cast. And four years before that in 2018, 736,464 early ballots had been sent in or cast in person.