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LISBON -- After witnessing heavy in-person voting over the weekend, Columbiana County Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco said she expects voter turnout to be closer to 50 percent.
"Columbiana County is just a great voting county," Deputy Director Bryce Miner said during a board meeting Monday.
Last week when asked about the percentage of registered voters she expected to cast ballots for this general election today, Fusco originally estimated 40 percent or more, but now she agrees with Miner that it will be higher.
Polls are open today from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and anyone not sure of their polling location can visit columbiana.boe.ohio.gov to see where they vote or read a sample ballot before going to the polls. Voting today is only available at the precincts, not at the board office.
Board of Elections Chairman David Johnson reminded Salem voters who normally voted at the high school to instead go to the Salem First Christian Church on Sixth Street, the new polling location.
As of Wednesday, the number of absentee ballots cast so far totaled 3,147, with 1,955 in person at the Board of Elections office in Lisbon and 1,192 by mail. Those totals changed dramatically as of Monday, after the in-person voting ended Sunday, with 1,330 more ballots cast over four days in person and by mail. As of Monday, there were 2,943 in-person ballots cast and 1,534 by mail for a total of 4,477.
According to Miner, the number of in-office voters was the second largest ever, only second to the 2020 general election. This election beat out last year's gubernatorial general election. This was also the second time there were more ballots cast in person during early voting than by mail.
Absentee ballots must be returned by mail with a postmark Monday or delivered in person to the county Board of Elections office in Lisbon at the drop box or at the counter by 7:30 p.m. today.
The board met briefly Monday for some routine pre-election business, such as voting machine allocation and Election Day ballot allocation and reviewed some absentee ballots, dealing with four overvotes, a blank ballot, questions of voter intent on a dozen ballots and problem scans on three ballots. The overvotes won't be counted, but the rest of the races on those particular ballots will be counted. The problem scans had tears in the ballot or a fold that was preventing the scanner from reading the votes, so the board gave approval for the ballots to be remade by a team of bi-partisan election workers following the voter intent.
As for the dozen voter intent questions, they were a matter of marks not being dark enough, one done in pencil, not completely filled in or an errant mark. In all 12 cases, the board agreed that the voter intent was obvious. The ovals will be darkened or completely filled in by a team of bi-partisan election workers or ballots remade following voter intent and run through the scanner.
The board will reconvene tonight.