More than 7K voters cast early ballots

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Ohio’s early voting period officially ended at 5 p.m. Sunday and it was a popular option for locally registered voters and voters throughout Ohio.

According to figures provided by Pam Henderson, Director of the Van Wert County Board of Elections, 7,354 early in-person ballots were cast locally during the 23-day early voting period, which ran for 23 days and included extended daily hours and weekend hours. In attention, 1,548 were requested by mail and 1,390 were returned by Saturday, November 2.

“Great turnout for the presidential November general election so far,” Henderson said. “Poll workers have been trained and will be ready for Election Day. I’m expecting the election day polling locations to busy as well…expecting between 8,000-10,000 more on Election Day.

Statewide, numbers from the Ohio Secretary of State website show as of 12 p.m. Sunday, 2.4 million Ohioans voted early. More than 1.4 million voted in-person, while nearly one million ballots had been returned by mail.

If the previous presidential election is an accurate indicactor, local voter turnout is expected to be heavy for this election. In November, 2020, Van Wert County’s voter turnout was just over 74 percent. 70 percent of the ballots were cast early.

The polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. A valid photo ID is required to vote. Any one of these types of identification will be accepted: a valid Ohio driver’s license, State of Ohio ID card, an interim ID form issued by the Ohio BMV, a U.S. passport, a U.S. passport card, a U.S. military ID card, an Ohio National Guard ID card or a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID card.

The VW independent will have results as they come in from the Van Wert County Board of Elections.