Amount of early voters expected to break record in Franklin County (Columbus, Ohio)

[blue-wave]

Source: Columbus Dispatch

The crowd was heavy for early voting at the Franklin County Board of Elections Friday afternoon and board of elections officials expect the turnout will top 2012 early voting numbers......

......Early voting started Oct. 12 and since then, more than 62,000 people have voted in person at the board of elections, at 1700 Morse Road in Columbus.

"We will definitely beat 2012 numbers," Sellers said. "We could potentially smash it."

There are about 843,000 registered voters in Franklin County and 150,000 requested absentee ballots, Sellers said.

Read more: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/11/04/early-voting-long-lines.html

---

That's 150,000 absentee ballots? That's Yuuuge!! Add the 62,000 already early in person votes, 25% of the registered voters in the Columbus, Ohio area will vote early!!!

Columbus is a democratic area so this is very good for us. The polls be damned! Team Clinton is doing a tremendous job of GOTV!!

[Upthevibe]

1. Thank you for this post!!!!! n/t

[Botany]

3. I early voted 11/2/16 in the AM in Columbus, OH

strong turn out

[betsuni]

4. Oh, Columbus Dispatch, voters don't come in amounts, they come in numbers.

This bugs me. I am old and have turned into my mother.

[yankeepants]

26. You can't use a shovel on them!

[Cha]

5. K&R!!! Mahalo, blue-wave!

[ck4829]

6. I am one of them.

[manicraven]

9. Sounds great!

GOTV Ohio!

[ColumbusLib]

10. Including me

I live in Columbus and voted early, by mail, a week ago. Virtually everyone I know here has already voted... And we're all Democrats! Also, I got to see President Obama at his rally here last Tuesday. Columbus is big on Hillary 😀👍

[SIU_Blue]

11. Me too

Voted at the Morse Rd site a week ago or so and the volunteer who set up my machine said that so far turnout was definitely higher than in '12. The dem ground game is on point!

[appalachiablue]

12. Fabulous. Go Ohio, the Buckeye State!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. Yes!! That's a Democratic area, so that probably bodes well!

Let's win this state for Hillary!!

[forthemiddle]

14. I have questions on the early voting phenomenon

Doesn't it stand to reason that almost all of the people voting early are people that would have definitely voted anyways?
What I mean is that an undecided, or unmotivated voter is not going out of their way to vote early.
I will be very interested to see if early voting really increases voter participation, or if it just spreads that participation out over a few weeks.
I am encouraged that the Dems seem to be doing so well, but I don't think, necessarily that much can be read into that (except for the high Hispanic vote).

Another question I have is going to be the already dubious exit polls that will come out on election day. If close to 25% of people have already voted, how can the exit polls then be accurate.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

15. Exit polls on election day in Ohio usually show...

... more favorable results for Republicans. The early votes get counted the soonest after the polls close (I think), and the media mentions those percentages too.

Early turnout in Democratic strongholds is encouraging to me because it might indicate that Democrats are more eager to vote.

I live near Dayton (which is generally only slightly Democratic), and I voted very early and in-person partly to see the turnout. I was encouraged when I saw many excited Clinton supporters and signs outside of the polling area (more than 100' from the building) and no Trump supporters or signs anywhere.

[LisaL]

17. OH starts counting absentee ballots 10 days after an election.

So if election is close that means OH might not know for a while who won it.

[Maeve]

18. That is incorrect--PROVISIONAL ballots are counted 10 days after

ABSENTEE and early ballots are counted election day and are the first reported. My absentee ballot has been accepted and will count election day.

[LisaL]

19. Here is an article from 2012.

OH started counting ABSENTEE ballots on Nov 17th. So both absentees and provisionals aren't counted until 10 days after the election. Unless the rules have been changed since 2012?

"Election officials in Ohio were scheduled to begin counting absentee ballots and provisional ballots on Saturday, November 17, 2012."

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/13691-ohio-starts-counting-absentee-and-provisional-ballots-%E2%80%94-but-where-when-and-who%E2%80%99s-counting

[Maeve]

21. those were late ballots--the ones that were postmarked but not received by election day

I've been working for the BOE since 2008, and I do know what I'm talking about.
For a list of when absentee ballots are counted in all states, see the link below

http://www.uselections.com/faq_absentee.htm#3

[LisaL]

22. Thanks.

Still, if OH is really close, we might not know for while who won it.

[Retrograde]

25. There's at least one error on that site

California mail-in votes (they're not called absentee on the literature the county and state send me) are valid if they are postmarked by COB election day and received by the end of that week - which is not what the site says. I also don't think that California starts counting them until the polls close on election day.

In California, each county has 30 days after the polls close to submit an official certified tally to the Secretary of State, and as we saw during the primary election results can vary from day to day. There are a couple of Congressional races I don't think will be settled on election day or the day after.

[Maeve]

27. Yes and Ohio mail-ins received after election day but postmarked day before

Are cross-checked with provisional ballots cast election day to determine which will be counted and that isn't started until 10 days later....slightly more complicated than the site goes into.

This is the first site I found with a comprehensive listing. Your mileage may vary, so check with your state to be sure. However, in general, absentee/early votes are the onew we see as first results on tv.

[LisaL]

16. Studies on whether early voting increases turnout have been somewhat scattered,

But I think the overall conclusion is that early voting doesn't lead to large changes in turnout.

"In a February blog post, MIT political scientist Adam Berinsky summarized other studies that likewise showed early voting does not boost turnout. The real hurdles to voting, he said, have nothing to do with physically getting to the polls."

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/28/499492832/5-questions-about-early-voting-answered

[Maeve]

20. Actually, early voting can be easier

You have shorter lines as a general rule, there are weekend hours and there are groups--like Souls to the Polls--that organize voters to make a party of it.
And yeah, if they don't take early voting into account, exit polls are only of use to tell you how election day itself goes.

[LisaL]

23. In OH, if they don't consider early voting, exit polls will be really off.

Obama build a huge early voting lead in 2012, while Romney actually won the election day vote. It all averaged to Obama winning OH. But if early voting wasn't considered, obviously exit polls would show Romney ahead.

"Mitt Romney won Election Day," said Matt Borges, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. But President Barack Obama won the election. Democrats had built too big a lead."

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/10/10/who-win-early-voting-ohio/91617540/

[Maeve]

24. Another reason early voting can be easier in Ohio--no photo ID required

Early voting is considered a form of absentee ballot, which means the ID requirements are the same as for vote-by-mail absentee--your driver's license number or the last for digits of your social security #. A BOE staff member can verify that ID and voter signature by computer on the spot, with the voter present and so the vote can be accepted.
This info is a paraphrase of info found on the official Franklin Co BOE Facebook page--post dated October 31, 5:30 pm
https://www.facebook.com/FranklinCountyBoardofElections/

[LisaL]

29. Considering early voting in Cuyahoga is down,it's a good thing Franklin is doing well.

"Before Saturday, about 30,000 Franklin County early voters were Democrats and another roughly 30,000 were unaffiliated, the elections director Leonard said. Just over 10,000 were Republicans."

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-1478381818-htmlstory.html

[phleshdef]

30. Waiting till Tuesday myself but my grandmother voted Thursday.