Statewide ballot questions, including a politically charged collective-bargaining issue, amped up early voting in this off-year election, even with in-person voting ending three days earlier than in the past.Double-digit percentage increases were reported in key labor strongholds fighting the collective bargaining law (state Issue 2) and rural areas, where interest is running high on a health-care issue (Issue 3). Some increase might be due to people changing their habits to routinely vote early.Secretary of State Jon Husted said Friday’s cutoff for early voting at election boards was required by changes to state law. In previous elections, the deadline had been the Monday before the election.With mailed ballots still allowed through today’s election, nearly 68,000 people, or a 66 percent increase, had voted early in Franklin County, home to Columbus and a large public-employee work force.In the comparable off-year election in 2009, 41,000 Franklin County voters cast early ballots, said Ben Piscitelli, spokesman for the county elections board.The increase reflects “a combination of the interest in the statewide issues, including the collective-bargaining issue, and just the popularity of voting early,” Piscitelli said.In heavily Democratic Akron, the Summit County elections board predicts about 22,000 people will cast ballots early, by mail or in person — a 15 percent increase over 2009.Ron Koehler, director of the Summit board, said all categories of early voting were up this year over 2009, including in-person voting at the elections board and mail ballots.The Summit board had gotten about 25,500 absentee ballot requests as of Monday, compared with about 19,000 requests in November 2009, according to the board’s website.In Youngstown, a stronghold for Democrats and labor fighting the collective bargaining issue, Mahoning County board Director Thomas McCabe said early voting was up about 25 percent to more than 16,000.The big early turnout extended to some rural areas, where the health-care issue has resonated with conservative voters. In mostly Republican Wayne County, almost twice as many voted at the election board, and mailed ballots were up 24 percent over 2009 totals.In GOP-leaning Washington County in southeast Ohio, where voter phone banks have focused on the health-care issue, early turnout probably will be up 5 percent, election board Director Peggy Byers said.But there was nearly one-third dip in requests for mail ballots in heavily Democratic Cleveland and Cuyahoga County compared with 2009, when the county mailed applications to every voter, a practice that has ended.The return envelope for the marked ballot had prepaid postage in past years. This year mail ballots didn’t include return postage.A U.S. Postal Service spokesman, Dave Van Allen, said only a handful of mailed ballots lacked postage. The post office is delivering unstamped ballots and will bill the election board, he said.McCabe worries that some people in Youngstown might not have heard there would not be election eve voting Monday at board offices.“I always liked that Saturday-
Monday voting because it takes care of people, especially with family emergencies or work-related issues,” he said.“I know on Monday we’re still going to be dealing with voters who haven’t heard that voting ends [Friday], coming in trying to cast a last-minute ballot.”Beacon Journal staff writer Stephanie Warsmith contributed to this report.