MANSFIELD — With still almost three weeks before Election Day, almost 10,000 voters in Richland County have already cast ballots.
That’s almost 18 percent of the total ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election when 56,106 county residents participated in the election.
Richland County Board of Elections Director Paulette Hankins said Wednesday morning that 5,740 residents have cast ballots in-person since early voting began Oct. 6. That’s up from 872 early votes at the same point in 2016.
Of those voting in person, Hankins said there have been 2,191 Republicans, 1,418 Democrats and 2,068 non-partisan participants.
Hankins said the board has received 4,195 absentee ballots, up from 79 by this date in 2016.
She said 15,942 Richland County residents have requested absentee ballots, up from 8,369 requested at this stage in 2016.
Hankins said things have gone smoothly at the elections offices, 1495 W. Longview Ave., despite the increased activity.
“We’ve had maybe three complaints, compared to many expressions of appreciation,” she said.
“There are lines often, but the average wait time is still less than 15 minutes, and most people are in and out in about 10 minutes. We’ve added one more check-in station bringing our total up to seven now, and will add more if needed,” Hankins said.
She said the agency has seven poll workers checking IDs and processing voters.
“We have at least two workers monitoring the entrance and exit stations, and another two workers sanitizing the machines, the voter access cards and all table surfaces continuouslym” Hankins said.
“Voters enter through the main entrance and line up down the hallway, and then exit through the other door to the back parking lot, so that they don’t have to pass by the voters in line waiting to cast their ballots,” she said.
“We start our in-person training for experienced poll workers Friday, but this shouldn’t cause any additional congestion in the early voting area because we’re conducting those training sessions in the upstairs classroom,” she said.
Hankins said workers for these training sessions will enter and exit from the upper level. The training continues through Saturday all day, and into next week.
“We’ve also added an online training option for our experienced workers if they prefer not to attend in person,” she said.
Around Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Tuesday the number of in-person, early voting was almost triple the numbers seen four years ago.
He said 193,021 Ohio residents have voted since Oct. 6, compared to 64,312 at the same time in 2016.
Absentee ballot requests increased by 316,033 in the last week to a total of 2,470,268 absentee ballot applications received by county boards of elections statewide, LaRose said.
At the same time during the 2016 election, 1,245,670 absentee ballots had been requested, he said.
“Voter enthusiasm is off the charts and we couldn’t be happier,” LaRose said. “We’ve never seen this many people voting early in-person and it demonstrates what Ohioans know to be true – it’s easy to vote in the Buckeye State.”
With 216 hours of early voting available to registered Ohioans, Ohio ranks ahead of 43 other states.
“We’re one of 20 states with voting on Saturdays and one of just five that allow voting on Sunday,” LaRose said.
As a reminder, residents must show ID to vote in Ohio. Acceptable forms include: an unexpired Ohio driver’s license or state ID card; a military ID; a photo ID issued by the U.S. government or the State of Ohio, that contains your name and current address and that has an expiration date that has not passed; or a current (within the last 12 months) utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document (other than a notice of voter registration mailed by a board of elections) that shows the voter’s name and current address.
Voters without ID may provide either their Ohio driver’s license or state identification number (which begins with two letters followed by six numbers) or the last four digits of their Social Security number and cast a provisional ballot. Once the information is reviewed and verified by the board of elections, the ballot will be counted.
Voters without ID and cannot supply their driver’s license/state identification number or the last four digits of their Social Security number at the precinct, they will still be able to vote using a provisional ballot. However, in order for that ballot to be counted, they must return to the board of elections no later than seven days following Election Day to provide a qualifying form of identification.
