COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — Less than one week to go until Election Day and early voting is bringing out tens of thousands of Ohioans daily.
“I am not shocked,” Democratic strategist Brian Rothenberg said. “I think that the people have made up their minds on a lot of sides here. There’s a just finite undecided vote at this point. But I think people are motivated on both sides.”
“I think a lot of people that just wanted to vote, get it over with so they can tune out all of the pollution on TV with all the commercials back and forth and say, ‘I’m done with it,’” Republican strategist Terry Casey said.
So far, nearly 2 million Ohioan s have voted early in person or via absentee ballot according to the secretary of state’s office.
But what does the big early-voter turnout all mean?
“A big turnout does not necessarily favor one side or the other,” Casey said. “It depends what the different voter subgroups are, how interested are they? How much do they vote?”
“High voter turnout is always important for Democrats because they tend to vote early, or Democratic-leaning voters, even the independents,” Rothenberg said. “What we don’t know about the Republican early vote is how many of those early voters are people that are traditional Election Day voters. So will the Republican turnout on Election Day be a lot lower because they have more people voting early?”