It is a banner year for early voting in central Ohio, but there are still several thousand ballots that were requested through the mail which haven't been returned to county boards of elections.
After early voting concluded Sunday, the seven counties that make up central Ohio reported nearly 300,000 early in-person and mail-in ballots were cast. There are still more than 19,000 ballots that were requested and have not been returned.
Those outstanding ballots have to be returned by the time polls close at 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. While voters can mail the ballots, they likely won't make it in time to be counted.
Voters can drop off the ballots in-person at the county boards of election.
Republicans controlling the Ohio General Assembly changed the law in November 2025 to require ballots to arrive by Election Day. Previously, ballots could arrive after Election Day and be counted, if they were postmarked by Election Day.
Most of the outstanding ballots in central Ohio are in Franklin County — more than 12,000. The state's largest county also saw consistent lines in the final week of early voting.
More than 90,000 people voted early, in-person in Franklin County while more than 70,000 people have requested a ballot. That is more than 2022 when more than 48,000 people voted early in-person and a little more 100,000 people requested and returned a mail-in ballot.
