DARKE COUNTY — Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced earlier this week that of the 7.7 million Ohioans registered to vote, more than 1.4 million had requested absentee ballots in anticipation of the November 8 election.
Closer to home, in Darke County, the Board of Elections reports a total of 4,934 absentee ballots have been requested.
Luke Burton, elections administrator at the Darke County Board of Elections, said of those requested, 3,253 had been received by the board as of October 25.
“The [3,253] includes both mailed ballots and our in-office early/absentee voters,” he said. “Since the first day of absentee voting, we have had a total of 1,352 people come to vote in person at our Garst Avenue office.”
Burton said he expects Darke County will see a greater number of early/absentee voting participants this year, as opposed to the last general election in 2012, although the board reports fewer registered voters in this contest.
Voter registration in Darke County for the 2016 election is 34,064, while voter registration in the county for 2012 election was 36,447.
“I am not able to get numbers from a certain date, but I can tell you we had a total of 6,595 absentee ballots. 3,328 of those were in-office voters, in 2012” he explained.
For those voters who don’t wish to wait until November 8, Darke County, as well as Ohio’s 87 other counties, offer an early voting option.
“In order to vote in our office, bring a form of identification such as an Ohio driver’s license,” said Burton. “We will ask the voter to fill out a short form which is the official application for an absentee ballot. Then they may vote.”
“If they prefer to have a ballot sent to their home we also need an application for an absentee ballot filled out,” he added. “These can be picked up in our office, or printed off the Ohio Secretary of State’s website at www.myohiovote.com. The mail has been taking an average of three business days, one way, when we ship a ballot.”
Earlier in the year, the Darke County Board of Elections was seeking poll workers for the county’s many polling places. The situation, for this election, appears to be rectified, according to Burton.
“At this time we are fine on the amount of poll workers,” he said. “But if anyone is interested we are more than happy to put them on a list of future contacts.”
The Darke County Board of Elections is located at 300 Garst Avenue in Greenville. For further information, visit the office, call 937-548-1835 or email the board at [email protected].
