One week out from Election Day, more than 1.6 million Ohioans have already voted.
As of Monday night, more than 742,000 voters returned their absentee ballots and more than 941,000 voted early in person, according to data from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Tuesday. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 4 and arrive at boards of elections by Nov. 9 to be counted.
Here’s what the early voting data so far can tell us.
More Ohio Republicans than Democrats have voted early
So far, 515,267 Republicans have voted early in-person or returned a mail-in ballot compared to 349,282 Democrats and 813,913 unaffiliated voters.
David Jackson, a political science professor at Bowling Green State University, said the numbers show the change in strategy with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Trump previously criticized early voting and yet has encouraged his supporters to vote early this time.
Jackson noted that the significance of this early lead depends on whether the Ohio Republicans who have voted early are new registered voters or voters who otherwise would have cast their ballots on Election Day.