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Athens County Election Officials: Morning Voter Turn Out Low
< < Back to ?p=7810Athens County election officials said voter turnout appears to be below average Tuesday morning.
Polling places located at City Hall and at Ohio University's Baker Center only a handful of people waiting in line to vote.
Officials at the Ohio University Division of Student Affairs said the low turnout could be because many Ohio University students are spending the morning waiting in line to obtain a proof of residency form in order to go vote.
Officials said the office has been filled with students since 8 a.m.
Voters like Ohio University freshman Casey Harchaoui said they were surprised at the low turnout.
"I was expecting a long line," she said. "I'm assuming most people might be in class this morning. I also think that most students aren't from Athens County and felt more comfortable filling out an absentee ballot in their home county.
Other voters like OU senior James Bohland think the low turnout is because of early voting.
"Every time I walked past the Board of Elections office there seemed to be a lot of people there," said Bohland.
According to officials at the Athens County Board of Elections 9,249 people in Athens County voted early this year either by mail or in person.
There are 47,856 registered voters in Athens County.
That is breaksdown to just over 19% of registered voters that voted early.
Ohio had almost 1.8 million people statewide cast their vote before Election Day.
The polls will be open until 7:30 p.m.