MANSFIELD — A four-way Republican race for mayor and several countywide tax issues are likely pushing early voters to the ballot.
At the end of Tuesday, one week before primary election day, a total of 1,074 Richland County voters have cast ballots in person at the Board of Elections office at 1495 W. Longview Ave., Suite 101.
But local elections director Matt Finfgeld predicted Wednesday that more than 80 percent of the county’s registered voters will still sit out this election cycle.
“I am hoping for 18-percent voter turnout,” he said. “If we get to 20 percent, I would be really happy.”
The early, in-person votes are in addition to 590 absentee ballots requested through the mail and another 148 from nursing-home residents, absentee ballots dropped off at the elections office and military absentee.
In 2019, the last Mansfield mayoral primary election cycle, there were only 862 total early votes cast when only 33 of the county’s 83 precincts were open for business.
There were no countywide races or issue in 2019. In fact, Richland County Board of Elections Director Matt Finfgeld said this is the first countywide, odd-year primary election since 2013.
In 2019, 31,903 voters were eligible to participate and 11.34 percent voted. That race featured a Democratic Party primary race for Mansfield mayor between Don Bryant and Victoria Norris-Diez.
In 2015, when 46,331 voters were eligible to vote, just 7.1 percent participated.
The biggest draws in that election cycle were a Democratic Party race for Mansfield City Council At-large between Bryant and Chris Elswick and two non-partisan races for Shelby mayor (Steven Schag and Harold Shasky Jr.) and finance director (Briton Lash, Cohen Lewis and Steve Lifer).
Finfgeld said the GOP race for Mansfield mayor among Jim Holsinger, Jodie Perry, Linn Steward and Stephanie Zader will attract voters this year, along with several tax levy issues.
The GOP race for Mansfield finance director (Kelly Blankenship and Mark Abrams) and the Democratic Party race for Mansfield law director (Christopher Brown and Rollie Harper) will also bring out supporters, he said.
Among those tax issues are new requests from the Richland County Park District and the Madison Local School District, as well as a handful of countywide tax renewal requests.
Among the early voters participating, 1,017 requested non-partisan, issues-only ballots, along with 404 Democrats and 391 Republicans.
“A lot of the county only has issues-only ballots,” Finfgeld said. “Only the City of Mansfield has partisan races, along with the 2nd Ward council race in Ontario.”
The Board of Elections office is open for early voting Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“Sunday afternoon is the final day of early voting,” Finfgeld said. “If you haven’t voted by the time we close on Sunday, you will be voting at your polling place on Tuesday.”
