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If you waited until election day to vote and think the polls sometimes seemed to be a little busier than you had expected, you are probably right.
Across Ohio, according to the secretary of state’s office, about 58.1% of the 8,018,054 registered voters -- that’s 4,658,250 -- took part this year, which is a pretty high total for a mid-year election. That’s really not that surprising, though, when you consider that highly contested and closely watched races for governor and U.S. Senator topped the ballot.
Local numbers also were impressive for a mid-term election, which also was not a surprise -- in Jefferson County, there was a contested race for county commissioner and there were nearly 20 tax and other issues on the ballot in various part of the county, including four that everyone had the chance to vote on. That’s in addition to the statewide races.
There were 42,980 registered voters in Jefferson County for this year’s election and, according to the Jefferson County Board of Elections, 22,467 voters across 55 precincts cast ballots. That works out to 52.3%, and that actually was the lowest among counties in our general region.
In Carroll County, 11,449 of the 17,721 registered voters -- 58.96% -- cast ballots, while Columbiana County saw 35,214 of its 63,835 registered voters -- 55.16% -- cast ballots. In Harrison County, 5,108 of the 9,439 registered voters -- 54.12% -- cast ballots, and Belmont County saw 22,332 of its 42,349 registered voters -- 52.73% -- cast ballots.
A significant number of those votes were cast through Ohio’s early voting system. Looking at the entire state, 1,100,988 Ohioans participated through in-person early voting. There were 676,910 absentee ballots returned out of the 737,109 ballots issued. That means there were 1,838,097 votes cast in advance of Tuesday, which works out to 39.5 percent of the total votes cast.
Voters who weren’t affiliated with either party made up the largest group who voted early. They requested 900,851 ballots, a number which includes those who were early in-person voters and those who requested absentee ballots. For Democrats, that number was 484,293, while for Republicans, it was 449,812.
Those overall numbers were a little higher in Jefferson County, where 41.6% -- 9,339 -- of the total votes were cast early. There were 5,646 early in-person votes cast in Jefferson County, and 3,693 of the 3,962 absentee ballots that had been requested returned.
Just like the rest of the state, the largest number of those who voted early were unaffiliated with a party. There were 3,324 Republicans who voted early and 2,316 Democrats who voted early, the secretary of state’s office reported.
In Harrison County, 1,817 voters participated in early voting, with 1,036 casting in-person ballots. In Belmont County, 10,029 voters voted early, with 5,199 casting in-person ballots. In Carroll County, there were 3,637 votes cast early, with 2,348 casting in-person ballots. and, in Columbiana County, 10,611 votes were cast early, with 6,443 casting in-person ballots.
Looking at the statewide races, Democrat Amy Acton was elected governor, and Democrat Sherrod Brown was elected to fill the last two years of the Senate seat that had been held by J.D. Vance until Vance became vice president.
Acton won by a pretty wide margin over Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, 2,404,178 votes -- 52.3% -- to 2,039,730 votes -- 44. 37%. Ramaswamy carried Jefferson County by a 12,970 to 7,707 margin (59.69% to 35.47 percent). Ramaswamy also came out on top in Carroll County (65.39% to 28.69%), Harrison County (63.78% to 29.8%), Columbiana County (62.02% to 33.26%) and Belmont County (61.08% to 34.35%).
Acton won big where it was figured she would: Cuyahoga County (72.33% to 25.46%), Franklin County (71.88% to 25.99%), Hamilton County (63.11% to 34.52%) and Lucas County (62.91% to 33.6%).
In the Senate race, Brown defeated Republican Jon Husted, who had been appointed to fill the seat by Gov. Mike DeWine, by a margin of 2,301,042 to 2,077,748, or 50% to 45.15%. The breakdown of local counties showed Husted winning in Jefferson (59.11% to 34.79%; Carroll (65.41% to 27.15%), Harrison (62.76% to 28.51%), Columbiana (62.06% to 31.34%) and Belmont (60.27% to 33.98%.)
Brown won big where he was expected to: Cuyahoga County (70.06% to 26.35%), Franklin County (69.25% to 27.11%), Hamilton County (60.51% to 35.17%) and Lucas County (60.45% to 34.7%).
Looking at West Virginia, the secretary of state’s office reports that 463,912 of the state’s 1,210,385 registered voters turned out Tuesday. A lot of that is likely because there weren’t any statewide issues of major significance, with the biggest being U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s bid for re-election, which she handily won.
In Brooke County, 5,540 of the 15,159 registered voters cast ballots, which works out to 36.6 percent, while in Hancock County, 7,653 of the 18,945 registered voters cast ballots, which works out to 40.4%.
Early voting was not as much a priority in West Virginia as it was in Ohio. Early voting totaled 169,350 in West Virginia, or about 14% of the state’s registered voters.
In Brooke County, 1,389 voters cast early ballots, while in Hancock County, that number was 1,646.
Nothing ever rests when it comes to politics, and there already has been plenty of talk of what might be ahead of us.
Ohio’s primary is scheduled for May 4, but with 2027 falling in the off year when there will likely be little to vote on, that might not generate a whole lot of interest. It will be the same with the Nov. 2 general election.
While that respite might be nice, we’re really not that far away from Nov. 7, 2028, when, among all the other choices we will have to make, we will select our next president.
While texting with friends Tuesday night, I mentioned that with the end of this election cycle, we would at least be able to relax for a little while.
One replied that, somehow, he doubted if we would be able to relax.
But, he added, we deserve at least a long weekend.
(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is senior writer of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)