NORWOOD, Ohio — Early in-person voting is now over across the Tri-State, with some counties reporting record turnout for voting before Election Day.
Hamilton County expects voter turnout to fall between 70-74%. That figure could exceed 2020, but experts say the early turnout doesn't indicate who will win. As of Monday, Nov. 4, the county reports 163,308 voters have cast a ballot in the 2024 election.
"It feels pretty good — everything was explained carefully in there on the ballots and stuff like that," said Robert Gaines, who voted early.
We spoke to Democrats, Republicans and Independents who all voted early and in person.
"It's no longer a badge of Republican honor to vote on Election Day or a badge of Democratic honor to vote early," said Stephen Voss, a University of Kentucky political science professor.
Voss said this election shows early voting is popular, convenient and bipartisan. However, the early voting numbers do not indicate election results.
"Sometimes people split their tickets Republicans vote for Democratic candidates, Democrats vote for a Republican candidate, (which) makes early voting even more confusing," said Voss.
Speaking of confusion, on Monday, WCPO noticed dozens of people showing up to the Hamilton County Board of Elections to vote early in person, one day after it ended.
At times, people walked into the Hamilton County Board of Elections wanting to vote early in person today, but found out it ended Sunday night. pic.twitter.com/ALrtfmEuji
— Bret Buganski (@Bret_Buganski) November 4, 2024
"I'm sure like many of these other people out here now, they thought they had at least had until today," said Antonio Robinson, who will now vote on Election Day. "I'm sure I'm not the only one that's going to be disappointed with it."
State data shows millions turned out to vote early this election cycle. In Ohio, 2,532,260 voted early as of Monday. In Indiana, that number was 1,529,359. Kentucky reported a record turnout with 792,476 casting a ballot early.
200,637 Kentuckians took advantage of Saturday early voting. With absentee ballots received so far, and in-person excused absentee voting and early voting concluded, 792,476 Kentuckians have voted in the 2024 general election to date.
— Michael Adams, KY Secretary of State (@KYSecState) November 3, 2024
"My hope is that now we're seeing Republicans and Democrats all seem to want to do it that the politicians will start listening to that and stop making it so inconvenient," said David Pepper, former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party.
Pepper says the long lines outside of some polling stations indicate that lawmakers need to reform early voting in Ohio by making it more convenient.
"It would be like declaring that we have one bureau of motor vehicle location per county everyone would say why that's what they're doing with early voting," said Pepper.
