More people voted early by absentee ballot in last fall’s presidential election than ever have before in Ohio. Secretary of State Jon Husted said more than 1.86 million absentee ballots were counted in the November election, 120-thousand more than were cast in 2008. Husted says two thirds of last fall’s absentee ballots were being mailed in, and 600-thousand were cast in person.
Husted: The programs we put in place for absentee... early absentee ballots was successful, in that we had more people vote early, which meant that reduced the potential for long lines on election day. Which is what early voting is supposed to be all about.
Husted also says a record percentage of provisional ballots were counted - 83.5 percent, compared to 80 percent of the provisional ballots that were voted in 2008. Most of the rejected provisional ballots were thrown out because the would-be voter wasn’t registered to vote in Ohio.