OHIO — Many people head to the polls during primary elections in May in Ohio, but some Ohioans already cast a ballot through absentee voting.

Some of the largest counties in the state told Spectrum News this year’s numbers aren’t what they expected.

Mike West, with Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said in an election like 2022, the county normally expects around 70,000 people to vote by mail. But the county got nowhere near that number.

“The rate of return is lower than we would expect and lower than we would hope,” West said. “Vote by mail is down by close to 50%.”

Just 35,000 people requested mail-in ballots in Cuyahoga County for this year’s primary. 

The number of ballots turned in, as of Sunday, was also lower than the county hoped. West said the county’s currently at a 66% return rate. He said they expected that the number would be closer to 85%.

In Summit County, the trend has been similar.

“The return rate seems slightly lower,” said Pete Zeigler with the Summit County Board of Elections.

In Columbus, the Franklin County Board of Elections couldn’t say if mail-in voting numbers were up or down, but said that about 2% of registered voters in the county have already voted. That includes both mail-in voting and early in-person voting.

Overall, the county hoping at least 18% of its registered voters cast a ballot.

“You know, we want as many people to vote as possible. We’ll just have to wait and see,” said Aaron Sellers, with the Franklin County Board of Elections.

For those Ohio registered voters who have yet to mail in ballots, they had to have it postmarked by May 2.

But, they can still have their vote counted by dropping off the ballot in person to their county’s board of elections until 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.