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Latest Ohio Absentee Ballot Data Shows Big Lead By Democrats

A postal truck delivers mail in central Ohio
Jo Ingles
A postal truck delivers mail in central Ohio

Democratic voters in Ohio continue to flood boards of elections with absentee ballot applications, and they’ve request almost twice as many ballots as all those mailed in by Democrats in 2016.

A review of 60 counties shows most absentee ballots requests are coming from unaffiliated voters who haven’t cast partisan ballots in recent primaries.

But 442,037 have been requested by Democratic affiliated voters already. That's 185% more than the 238,516 ballots Democrats returned by mail in all of 2016.

So far this year, Republican-affiliated voters have requested nearly 266,936. That's 92% of the total Republicans returned in all of 2016. 

Comparison of partisan absentee ballots mailed in 2016 with absentee ballot applications mailed in so far in 2020
Comparison of partisan absentee ballots mailed in 2016 with absentee ballot applications mailed in so far in 2020

And that potentially gives Democrats an advantage going into election day, especially as compared to four years ago.

Last week's Quinnipiac poll showed 51% of likely voters say they’ll vote early either by mail or in person, with 46% saying they’ll wait to vote at their polling places on election day. So far, 62% of the partisan ballots returned have been from Democrats, 38% from Republicans.

In 2016, 55% of all partisan ballots came from Republicans and 45% Democrats, giving Republicans an edge on election day.  Donald Trump ended up beating Hillary Clinton by 8 points in Ohio.

Contact Karen at 614-578-6375 or at kkasler@statehousenews.org.
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