Early voting surges in Licking County as Ohio's tight races drive turnout
Illustration: Press Pass USALicking County voters are casting early ballots at higher rates than in previous midterm elections, with nearly 22,000 ballots requested as of October 23 — putting the county on track to surpass its early-voting totals from both 2018 and 2022.
As of October 23, the county board of elections had issued 12,425 absentee ballots, with 7,040 of them returned, and nearly 9,100 people had voted in person, the Newark Advocate reported, citing Ohio Secretary of State data. Board of Elections Deputy Director Brian Mead said the county is averaging a little over 700 voters per day.
"We are definitely seeing more people come in these early weeks," Mead told the Advocate. "I want to say four years ago we had about 5,000 through the first three weeks, then about 5,000 the last week and the weekend. This year has been pretty steady large turnouts each day."
In 2018, the county's total of early in-person votes and absentee ballot requests was around 24,100, and that jumped to more than 25,000 in 2022. Several days remain for voters to break those totals before early in-person voting ends at 5 p.m. on November 1.
The surge mirrors the statewide picture: more than 900,000 ballots had been cast across Ohio as of October 23, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab. The 2026 midterms feature a contentious governor's race between Democrat Amy Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, and a heated U.S. Senate race between incumbent Jon Husted and former Sen. Sherrod Brown. Licking County voters are also deciding proposed charter amendments to ban large data centers in Pataskala and Granville, and who will succeed Rick Black as county commissioner.
Sources: The Newark Advocate (Oct 23, 2026); Ohio Secretary of State data, via the Advocate; University of Florida Election Lab (as of Oct 23, 2026).
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