Ohioans are taking advantage of early voting and traditional absentee voting in record numbers, said a spokesman for the secretary of state's office.
Almost 8,000 people in Athens County have turned in absentee votes since Sept. 30, which includes both early voting in person and traditional absentee votes, said Debbie Quivey, director of the Athens County Board of Elections. There are 50,186 registered voters in Athens County.
We've never had this many (absentee voters)
she said.
About 640 people voted at the Athens County Board of Elections office on Court Street on Friday, and 200 more voted between 8 a.m. and noon on Saturday, Quivey said. The board of elections processed 50 early voters per hour yesterday, she said.
Ohio University students were just some of these early voters.
I'm part of the Power Vote (movement) so I'm really surprised and excited by the number of people going to vote early said Megan Bringe, a freshman studying communications.
Other people voted early to avoid waiting in lines on Election Day, but still waited in lines that were at least 20 minutes long yesterday.
I was trying to avoid the lines
said Lakeisha Brown, a junior studying special education. It looks like lines will be long regardless.
Across Ohio, there have been 1.46 million requests for absentee ballots as of Oct. 24, said Jeff Ortega, assistant director of communications for the secretary of state's office. The March primaries set a record of about 500,000 absentee
ballots, he said.
Polls open today at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
' Emilie Schneider and Jessica Neidhard also contributed to this report.
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Shawn Keller waits in line for more than 30 minutes to vote early yesterday morning.
