COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Secretary of State's office says more than 3.9 million Ohioans voted in this November's election, about 800,000 more than we saw back in August.

While that may be good for democracy, some locations ran into problems because of the extra load.

What You Need To Know

  • Voter turnout at the Nov. 2023 election was higher than it was in the special election in August 

  • Political experts believe the turnout has to do with Issue 1 and Issue 2 

  • The higher voter turnout also caused some issues at polling locations 

“Normally, on an odd-numbered year in Ohio, you have your municipal elections, school boards, that sort of thing,” said Tom Sutton, Ph.D., Baldwin Wallace University political science professor. “And unfortunately, there tends to be the lowest turnout for those types of elections compared to congressional and presidential.”

Sutton said this recent election was different with both Issue 1 and Issue 2, giving many more Ohioans an extra reason to vote.

“Issue 1 affects everyone one way or another, directly or indirectly on the abortion issue and an issue to has a lot of attention, not just in terms of people’s personal preferences, but also it’s a trend that’s going across the country,” said Sutton.

But the higher-than-expected voter turnout put a strain on some polling locations across the state. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections said a few polling places ran out of ballots, which caused voters to use different voting machines until more ballots arrived. 

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