Politics

Ohio voters enter final week of early voting as more than 922,000 ballots already returned

Ohio • October 26, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: voters in line outside an Ohio polling place in autumn

Editorial illustration — Press Pass USA

Ohio voters enter the final week of early voting Monday, with polls open on extended hours through Sunday, November 1, ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, November 3.

According to the Ohio secretary of state's election dashboard, 1,240,470 early-voting ballots had been issued as of October 23, and 922,793 had been returned — a return rate of about 74%. Of those, 527,760 voters had cast ballots in person and 395,033 absentee ballots had been returned. The returned ballots represent about 11.2% of Ohio's roughly 8.2 million registered voters, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Early in-person hours this week are 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Friday, extended to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday — which is also the deadline for absentee ballot applications to reach county boards of elections. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, October 31, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, November 1. On Election Day, polls are open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and most mail ballots must be received by county boards by 7:30 p.m.

Nationally, more than 29 million ballots had already been cast as of late Monday morning, according to NBC News and the University of Florida Election Lab, with mail and in-person votes now roughly equal. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan have each topped one million ballots, state data show.

Sources: Columbus Dispatch (Oct 23, 2026); Ohio Secretary of State election calendar and dashboard; NBC News / University of Florida Election Lab via Newscubby (Oct 26, 2026).