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Voter turnout in the Mahoning Valley is expected to be about 50 percent
YOUNGSTOWN
About half of the registered voters in the Mahoning Valley are expected to cast ballots by the close of voting Tuesday, elections officials say.
Though early voting, both in-person and by mail, was slow but steady since it started Feb. 17, the pace picked up significantly in the final week before Tuesday’s primary, they said.
There should be about 11,000 to 12,000 early voters in Mahoning County before Tuesday’s primary, said elections Director Joyce Kale-Pesta.
Turnout in the heavily-Democratic county should be between 48 percent and 50 percent for the primary, she said.
In comparison, turnout was 56 percent in the county in 2008, the last primary without an incumbent running for president, and was 30 percent in 2012 for a contested Republican primary with President Barack Obama running unopposed in the Democratic primary.
The Republican and Democratic presidential primaries are driving voter turnout this year in the Valley, local election officials say.
As reported March 3 in The Vindicator – and picked up nationally by CNN and numerous political websites and blogs – Republican front-runner Donald Trump is the key reason registered Democrats and voters without a political party in Mahoning County are voting Republican during early voting.
About 55 percent of 4,000 or so voters who cast ballots early in the Republican primary are either Democrats or independents, said Chris Rakocy, the board’s information technology manager. A majority of them are independents, he said.
“We’ll have more Republicans voting [in this primary] than ever before,” Kale-Pesta said. “It’s Trump. They’re very vocal about it. They don’t mind telling us they’re Democrats. They’re saying, ‘I want a Republican ballot to vote for Donald Trump.’ People can choose any ballot they want. If you’re a Democrat, you can have a Republican vote. I’m expecting [that trend] to pick up” Tuesday.
Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are in a competitive race for the 66 Republican delegates up for grabs in the state’s winner-take-all primary Tuesday.
“This is Jim Traficant-Donald Trump country; it’s the same thing,” Kale-Pesta said in reference to Traficant, the former outspoken and controversial congressman who represented the Valley from 1985 to 2002 when he was expelled from the U.S. House.
There are 161,009 registered voters in Mahoning County, including 40,958 Democrats and 14,663 Republicans. The rest are independents, who don’t vote in primaries, with a tiny number affiliated with minor parties such as Libertarian and Socialist.
With the crossover by Democrats and independents, the number of registered Republican voters in Mahoning County will increase, election officials say.
Early voting statewide is from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Turnout in Trumbull County for this primary is expected to be 50 percent, said Stephanie Penrose, its elections director.
About 9,000 of the county’s 137,006 registered voters will vote early in the county, she said. Of registered voters in Trumbull, 33,930 are Democrats, 14,303 are Republicans, and the rest are independents with less than 100 members of other political parties.
Turnout in the 2008 primary was 58 percent and in 2012, it was 25 percent.
“We had 100 voters at the office when early voting started, and it’s been 300 a day in the past week,” Penrose said. “The presidential primary is the biggest thing on everyone’s mind. We have some Democrats coming to vote for Trump, but we don’t track that until” after the primary.
Turnout in Columbiana County is expected to be 48 percent for the primary, said Adam Booth, its elections director.
That would be a little higher than the 46 percent in the 2008 primary, but much more than the 26 percent turnout in 2012.
The reason for the increase?
“The Trump phenomenon and it coming down to Ohio and Florida,” Booth said. “People are more in tune” with the primary because of that.
About 2,000 in the county will vote early, he said.
There are 63,801 total registered voters in Columbiana County with 4,827 Republicans, 4,298 Democrats, and the rest being independents except for 27 members of third parties, Booth said.
As in Trumbull, the Columbiana County Board of Elections doesn’t track members of political parties switching affiliations until after the primary.
“We are seeing a large number of [independents] taking out partisan ballots,” Booth said.