(The Center Square) – With a little more than two days left in early, in-person voting in Ohio, more than 2 million ballots have already been cast.
That number represents a third of the total votes cast in the 2020 general election during the COVID-19 pandemic and 37% of the vote in the 2016 presidential election.
The vote total, however, represents only a quarter of the state’s roughly 8 million registered voters. Other states, like North Carolina and Georgia, have had half their votes cast early.
Nationwide, 63 million voters have already voted. In states that record party affiliation, Democrats cast 11,972,215 early ballots (38.9%), while Republicans cast 11,100,748 early ballots (36%), according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. More than 100 million voters went to the polls earlier for the 2020 general election.
Ohio voters can vote in person at local polling places Friday until 7:30 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday.
Voters voting early in person or on Election Day must also present an approved voter ID, which includes an Ohio driver’s license, state ID card, interim ID issued by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, U.S. passport, U.S. passport card, U.S. military ID card, or a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID card.
Of the more than 2 million votes cast in Ohio thus far, 1.2 million have been cast in person, while 858,000 have been returned absentee ballots. More than 16,000 ballots have come from out of state, and nearly 5,000 have come from out of the country.
More than 600,000 Republicans have already voted, while nearly 400,000 Democrats have cast an early vote.
Historically, between 5.6 million and 5.7 million Ohio voters cast ballots in the last four presidential elections, aside from a higher total during 2020 when absentee voting was expanded due to the pandemic.