It’s a single question on a summer ballot, but state Issue 1 has garnered more interest from voters than all but the highest-profile political campaigns, Mahoning Valley election officials say.

“It’s craziness,” said Stephanie Penrose, director of the Trumbull County Board of Elections. “We’re getting so many early votes. We didn’t expect this early turnout to be like this. I love being wrong. It’s great. It’s captured people’s interest.”

“This is something,” added Tom McCabe, director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections. “We knew it had potential because of the money being spent and the hot-button issue it is. It’s been an unusual, unique election. We’re seeing a lot of first-time voters or people who don’t usually vote.”

If Issue 1 is approved during Tuesday’s special election, future constitutional amendment proposals would need 60 percent support to pass rather than the current simple majority. That includes an abortion rights constitutional amendment that was certified to the Nov. 7 ballot.

Also, if Issue 1 is passed, effective Jan. 1, 2024, proposed constitutional amendments would need at least 5 percent of those who voted in the last gubernatorial election from all of the state’s 88 counties to qualify for the ballot rather than the current 44-county minimum.

The overall minimum of 10 percent of all total votes cast in the last gubernatorial election to qualify for the ballot remains the same. But proposed constitutional amendments would no longer have a 10-day “cure period” to get more signatures if the initial effort falls short.

Issue 1 is the only item on the Tuesday ballot and needs a simple majority to pass.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Early voter turnout has been very strong statewide, including the Mahoning Valley.

But something different has happened in this election. For likely the first time since early voting was started in Ohio in 2005, Valley election officials say they are seeing more people vote in person rather than by mail for this election.

“I’ve never seen it before,” McCabe said. “In-person always lagged far behind, but there is a push on both sides to get people to vote in person, and we’ve definitely seen it.”

Penrose said: “It’s a weird trend. Maybe it’s because people realize it’s easy to vote in person.”

Kim Fusco, director of the Columbiana County Board of Elections, said, “It’s typical to vote by mail, but this isn’t a typical election.”

Today from 1 to 5 p.m. is the last day to vote early in-person.

Polling locations are open Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

VOTER TURNOUT

Turnout in Trumbull County is expected to be about 30 percent, Penrose said. McCabe predicts 25 percent turnout in Mahoning while Fusco said turnout in Columbiana will be close to 30 percent.

In comparison, turnout for the August 2022 primary was 8 percent statewide. That was a second primary because of unconstitutional state legislative maps. It was also the poorest turnout for a statewide election since numbers have been recorded.

Tuesday’s election turnout will be higher than typical odd-year general elections and gubernatorial primaries, local election officials say.

With an abortion rights amendment on the Nov. 7 ballot and the likelihood of a recreational marijuana initiative also up for vote then, turnout for that election should be unusually strong, the local officials say.

“We could hit 40 to 50 percent in the fall,” Penrose said. “Those are very hot-button issues. I’m expecting very heavy turnout.”

Fusco said: “Turnout for November will be so high as people are very interested in those issues.”

McCabe said: “It will be a lot higher than a usual November election because of those two issues. We could easily see 40 percent. Issue 1 will pale in comparison to the money spent on those issues in November.”

According to the Associated Press, the state reported more than 533,000 votes cast among 6.6 million registered voters in advance as of Wednesday, including more than 176,000 mail ballots returned and 356,000 early in-person ballots cast. The state sent out almost 272,000 absentee ballots to voters. In the 2022 general election, almost 1.5 million Ohioans voted before Election Day, or about 35 percent of the electorate.