More than half of the registered voters in Mahoning and Trumbull counties are expected to vote early in this election.

With early voting starting Oct. 6, the number of requests for ballots in both counties already has exceeded the totals for the entire 2016 election.

To inform readers about early vote totals, the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator will provide that data, which comes directly from the boards of elections for Mahoning and Trumbull counties, as often as possible through the Nov. 3 election.

That information includes how many voters have requested absentee ballots, how many have been returned to the boards of elections and how many people have voted in-person at the early voting centers in the two counties.

The Mahoning voting information also includes requests and in-person votes by registered Democrats and Republicans and those who aren’t affiliated with either party. The Trumbull board doesn’t compile that information.

Just because people are registered Democrats, for example, doesn’t mean they vote for any or all Democrats on the ballot.

But three times as many Democrats in Mahoning County are requesting mail ballots and voting in-person than Republicans during the first week-plus of early voting.

In Mahoning County, 55,002 of the 165,383 voters have either requested absentee mail ballots or have voted early in-person, according to Thomas McCabe, deputy director of the elections board. That’s 33.3 percent of all registered voters in Mahoning.

Of the 49,196 voters who asked for an absentee ballot, 5,476 of them have returned them to the board of elections. Also, 5,806 people have voted in-person.

The number of returns is low because the ballots didn’t start getting mailed until Oct. 6, there was no mail Monday because of a federal holiday, and it takes time to get the ballots returned.

But it picked up significantly in just one day. There were 3,752 returned absentee ballots in Mahoning County on Wednesday. It increased to 5,476 Thursday.

In the 2016 election in total, there were about 42,000 early votes with about 28,000 by mail and the rest in-person, McCabe said.

In Trumbull County, 46,491 of the 136,928 registered voters have either requested absentee mail ballots or have voted early in-person, said board Director Stephanie Penrose. That’s 34 percent of all registered voters in the county.

Of the 40,844 registered voters who requested absentee ballots, 9,907 have been returned to the board, Penrose said. Also, 5,647 people have voted in-person.

In the 2016 election, Trumbull County had 18,401 people who voted early by mail and about 11,000 in-person, Penrose said.