Election officials predicted a low turnout for the primary. Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Jeff Rezabek reported Monday morning that just over 1,000 voters had cast ballots during the early voting phase.
“If you go back to the 2020 election, they were doing that (amount) in the first hour in the first day of the election,” he said during a Montgomery County Board of Elections meeting Monday morning.
A little less than 2,000 voters submitted absentee ballots, he said. There are about 368,000 eligible voters in the county.
“We will hopefully have a better turnout (Tuesday),” Rezabek said. “Our team is ready.”
Statehouse primaries were supposed to be in May with the primary for Ohio governor and U.S. Senate, but the Ohio Redistricting Commission failed to create maps that the Ohio Supreme Court found constitutional. A federal court in May then ordered the state to have the primary in August using unconstitutional maps while they come up with new maps for 2024.
Elections officials have said that having multiple primary elections leading up to the midterm in November has put a strain on their offices and employees. But directors in Montgomery County, Warren County and Greene County said their employees have buckled down to ensure that tomorrow’s election will run smoothly.
“Our team is working very hard, and they are doing an excellent job on making sure that we have an accurate and best election ever,” Greene County Board of Elections Director Alisha Lampert said.
A little more than 500 people voted early in-person in Greene County, she said, and 860 people applied for absentee ballots.
“It is very low,” Lampert said. “We will do what we can with what we got, which is what we always do.”
Officials have said that regardless of turnout, the work to prepare for an election is the same. Warren County has a few competitive races that will be decided today and has seen a larger turnout than others. More than 1,800 voters have cast ballots in the office, and another 1,520 by mail.
Warren County Board of Elections Director Brian Sleeth said the office is ready to have an election, but did have some poll workers drop out for various reasons, including being out of town. He said as of Monday, the office was still seeking more people to assist at the polls.
Find election results in our e-Paper
The Dayton Daily News will produce a special e-Paper early Wednesday morning with results on all competitive election races.
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Competitive races and issues on today’s ballots:
Every Ohio House district is on the ballot in this primary election, but only a handful have a competitive race (2 Republicans or 2 Democrats running head-to-head to see who advances to the November election). Here are those races locally:
HOUSE DISTRICT 55 (Eastern and northern Warren County, including Springboro)
Republican primary
- Thomas Goodwin
- Scott Lipps (incumbent)
HOUSE DISTRICT 56 (Central and southwest Warren County, including Lebanon and Mason)
Democratic primary
- Joy Bennett
- Sam Cao
Republican primary
- Kathy Grossmann
- Adam Mathews
HOUSE DISTRICT 70 (Western Greene County, including Beavercreek)
Republican primary
- Brian Lampton (incumbent)
- Katherine Shutte
ISSUES
- The city of Xenia is asking voters to approve amendments to the city charter to clarify rules for city council members and filling vacant seats, adding language that the city must comply with Ohio’s Uniform Tax Levy Law, and specifying that Ohio Ethics Law applies to all city officials and its employees.
- Ross Local School District will ask voters to decide on a 5-year, 7.99-mill, emergency property tax levy.
- Clark-Shawnee Local School District will ask voters to approve a substitute 12.1-mill property tax levy to replace two existing emergency levies.
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