Aug. 2 elections: Butler County turnout around 6%

Poll worker Sue Hartness hands a voting card to a voter during the primary election at Highview 6th Grade Center Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2022 in Middletown. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Poll worker Sue Hartness hands a voting card to a voter during the primary election at Highview 6th Grade Center Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2022 in Middletown. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

Predictably there is relatively high turnout in Ross Twp. school district precincts today at voters answer a big tax levy question, elsewhere polling places are virtually barren.

Deputy Board of Elections Director Eric Corbin said voting has gone smoothly today for the rare primary election that includes contested statewide races and Ross schools levy question.

“We’re staying busy but slow is good, because there is no fires to put out,” Corbin said. “We’re not having too many issues, we’re not having to send runners all over the place to day. Things are going well.”

As of 3:30 p.m. 11,069 voters have cast in-person ballots. So far 15,394 votes have been cast including early voting. This means turnout is around 6% of the 253,606 eligible voters. The turnout was 17% in the May primary.

Turnout ranged from 12% to 27% in Ross Twp. precincts where voters are answering a 5-year, 7.99-mill, emergency property tax levy request by the local schools. Corbin said of the 11,400 registered Ross voters 537 returned early voting ballots, he did not have in-person totals for those precincts.

Tuesday’s statewide election includes partisan primaries for state House and Senate seats, and state party central committee seats. Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

Election officials predicted a low turnout for the primary. In Butler County, the Board of Elections Deputy Director Eric Corbin said it’s just hard to make voters aware that they are needed at their polling locations — again.

“We think turnout will probably be in the single digits (percentage-wise),” Corbin said.

Statehouse primaries were supposed to be in May with the primary for Ohio governor and U.S. Senate, but the Ohio Redistricting Commission failed to create maps that the Ohio Supreme Court found constitutional. A federal court in May then ordered the state to have the primary in August using unconstitutional maps while they come up with new maps for 2024.

Elections officials have said that having multiple primary elections leading up to the midterm in November have put a strain on their offices and employees. Regardless of turnout, the work to prepare for an election is the same.

Here are the competitive races and issues on today’s Butler County ballots:

House District 46

Republican primary

- Thomas Hall (incumbent)

- Matt King

Democrat primary

- Lawrence Mulligan (uncontested)

House District 47

Republican primary

- Sara Carruthers (incumbent)

- Cody Harper

Democrat primary

- Sam Lawrence (uncontested)

House District 55 (Eastern and northern Warren County, including Springboro)

Republican primary

- Thomas Goodwin

- Scott Lipps (Incumbent)

House District 56 (Central and southwest Warren County, including Lebanon and Mason)

Democrat primary

- Joy Bennett

- Sam Cao

Republican primary

- Kathy Grossmann

- Adam Mathews

Issues

- Ross Local School District will ask voters to decide on a 5-year, 7.99-mill, emergency property tax levy.

- Hanover Reserve is requesting a local option to sell alcohol on Sundays.

Senate

Voters in Milford and Wayne townships and Trenton will be the only Butler County residents to decide on a state Senate race. Technically, the Republican voters will see just one name for the 5th Ohio Senate race as Sen. Stephen Huffman is uncontested. There is no Democratic candidate for the 5th Ohio Senate.

There are other races on the ballot due to the delays in the Ohio House and Senate district maps. In addition to House and Senate races, there will also be candidates for the State Central Committee for each party.

Warren County

Warren County has a few competitive races that will be decided today and has seen a larger turnout than others. More than 1,800 voters have cast ballots in the office and 1,520 by mail.

Warren County Boards of Elections Director Brian Sleeth said the office is ready to have an election, but did have some poll workers drop out for various reasons including being out of town. He said as of Monday, the office was still seeking more people to assist at the polls.


VOTER INFO

Hours: Polls in Ohio open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

Results: https://elections.bcohio.gov for Butler County and https://vote.warrencountyohio.gov for Warren County

Digital: The Journal-News digital ePaper on Tuesday morning will have coverage of the local races and issues. epaper.journal-news.com

More: Thursday’s print editions will have all the elections coverage.