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Ohio sets final early-voting record: more than 1.7 million ballots cast before Election Day

Columbus, Ohio • November 2, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: voters seen from behind waiting in line outside a county elections building in Ohio on a bright autumn morning

Editorial illustration — Press Pass USA

More than 1.7 million Ohioans had already voted in the November 3 election before Election Day, setting a new record for early voting in a midterm election, according to data from the Ohio Secretary of State reported Monday by The Columbus Dispatch.

Nearly 1.1 million people voted in person through November 1, the final day of early voting, and roughly 632,000 had returned mail-in ballots. The total blew past Ohio's previous midterm early-voting record of 1.5 million, set during the 2022 midterms and gubernatorial election. More than 104,000 absentee ballots were still outstanding and must be returned by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

The final weekend pushed the tally well beyond where it stood days earlier: nearly 1.5 million Ohioans had cast a ballot by Friday afternoon, October 30. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose confirmed the record in a statement Monday, saying, "Ohioans crushed the 2022 early voting record for a gubernatorial election."

"It is heightened interest," said Aaron Ockerman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials. "The ad buying this year obviously has been record setting. That kind of activity really does drive more participation."

While the overall tally outpaced 2022, fewer Ohioans opted to vote by mail this year. Election officials issued 736,733 absentee ballots, compared with roughly 1 million requested four years ago, according to the Secretary of State's office. The drop came after President Donald Trump unsuccessfully tried to overhaul the mail-in voting system and empower the U.S. Postal Service to block certain ballots. Ohio, meanwhile, no longer offers a four-day grace period for ballots that arrive after Election Day.

"A lot of folks were spooked by the headlines from the Trump administration about how they might monkey with mail delivery and specifically with delivery of ballots," said David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati.

The early vote was led by unaffiliated voters, who had 887,372 ballots issued and 806,704 returned. Democrats had a slight edge over Republicans heading into Election Day: the state issued 478,129 ballots to registered Democrats and 443,993 to registered Republicans, of which 467,871 and 431,730 had been returned. That means 48% of registered Democrats and 32% of registered Republicans have already voted.

"We do have to be careful because so much of the story is what are those unaffiliated folks thinking about?" Niven said. "They're hard to know."

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou said the GOP is "cautiously optimistic" about the numbers. While Democrats are more likely to vote early, he said the party has spent recent election cycles working to close that gap. "We haven't seen anything like the Democrats would need to overcome the disadvantages they have in this state," Triantafilou said. A spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The stakes are high: voters will choose their next governor after a campaign between Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton, and decide a nationally watched U.S. Senate race between Sen. Jon Husted and former Sen. Sherrod Brown. The election will also determine a new slate of statewide officials and several key congressional races. Both top races have attracted national attention and hundreds of millions of dollars in ad spending.

What remains now is Election Day itself. Polls open Tuesday, November 3, from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and anyone in line by 7:30 p.m. will be permitted to vote. Absentee ballots cannot be returned to Election Day polling locations; they must be received by the county board of elections no later than 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Early ballots reveal nothing about how anyone voted — only who has returned a ballot.

Sources: The Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY Network, "Ohio sets new early voting record for midterms. What does it mean?" (Nov. 2, 2026), reporting Ohio Secretary of State data; Ohio Secretary of State, "Secretary LaRose Issues Final Reminders Ahead of Election Day" (Nov. 2, 2026).