Ohio’s early in-person voting has drawn nearly four times as many voters as it did at the same point in the 2022 midterm elections, according to data from the Ohio secretary of state’s office.

Roughly 195,000 Ohioans have cast early in-person ballots on the fifth day of early voting, compared with just over 50,000 at the same point in 2022. The increase comes as Ohio’s U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races attract national attention and hundreds of millions of dollars in political advertising, although the early numbers alone do not establish what is driving more Ohioans to the polls this early.

This year’s Senate race pits former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown against Republican Sen. Jon Husted in a competition that MS NOW has rated a “toss-up.” The outcome of the race will help determine which party controls the upper chamber come January.

Democrat Amy Acton faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the closely watched gubernatorial race.

In 2022, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine sought re-election while JD Vance battled former Rep. Tim Ryan for retiring Sen. Rob Portman’s open seat.

This year’s midterm race is significantly more expensive than its 2022 counterpart. Candidates and outside groups have spent more than $577 million on TV and digital advertisements since January 2025 as of Oct. 13 — almost $353 million more than they had at the same point in 2022, according to AdImpact.

Democratic spending has nearly quadrupled compared to the same point in 2022, increasing by almost $200 million to reach roughly $270 million. Republican spending has risen by over $312 million between the two races to reach $465 million.

While early in-person voting numbers are up compared with 2022, Ohioan’s requests for mail-in ballots are down, according to the Ohio secretary of state’s office. Roughly 631,000 people have requested mail-in ballots this year, compared with roughly 871,000 people who had requested them at the same point in 2022.

President Donald Trump has honed in on mail-in voting during his second term, signing an executive order in late March attempting to restrict that form of voting ahead of the midterms because they are “highly inaccurate” and “inherently corrupt.” Secretaries of state from both parties have disputed the president’s characterization of mail-in voting. The Supreme Court blocked his executive order in mid-September, but the back and forth between the administration and courts could be pushing voters to change their usual voting methods.

Hamilton County, which is home to Cincinnati, is following that trend, said Sherry Poland, the director of the county’s board of elections. Almost 14,600 voters had cast their ballot early in-person as of Tuesday night, compared with roughly 4,500 voters at the same time in 2022 and 1,930 Ohioans during the 2018 midterms, she said.

“I don’t know that it’s one particular race that’s driving it,” Poland said of the uptick in early voting in her county. “Even though we are seeing this tremendous increase of early, in-person voting, voting is down by mail. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I don’t know if we’re looking at historic turnout.”

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