Rod Sommer stands in a partitioned booth and fills out his ballot during early in-person voting at the Hamilton County Board of Elections in Ohio. Ohio is one of only 25 states to permit citizen-led initiatives to change laws. Tuesday is Election Day, and heavy turnout is predicted in the Mahoning Valley....AP photo

With two statewide issues on the ballot, voter turnout will be the best in Mahoning and Trumbull counties for an odd-numbered year since 2015, election officials say.

“With the money being spent, Issue 1 (an abortion rights constitutional amendment) is driving a lot of voters,” said Tom McCabe, director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections. “Issue 1 is taking all the oxygen out of the room regarding interest.”

Stephanie Penrose, director of the Trumbull County Board of Elections, said Issue 1 and Issue 2, the legalization of recreational marijuana, are bringing out voters.

Both said local issues, particularly new taxes and contested candidate races, are drawing some interest, but it is the two statewide issues that are driving the higher-than-usual turnout.

The abortion proposal on Tuesday’s ballot is a constitutional amendment that reads in part: “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on conception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.”

The legalization of recreational marijuana is an initiative statute that would permit those at least 21 years old to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of concentrates as well as allow them to grow up to six marijuana plants individually but no more than 12 in a household.

Penrose predicts turnout “in the ballpark” of 50% in Trumbull for the election while McCabe said turnout percentage in Mahoning should be in the low 40s.

Turnout during odd-numbered elections in the area — and across the state — is typically low, particularly if there is no statewide issue on the ballot, such as in 2019 and 2021.

In 2021, turnout in Mahoning County was 25.07%, and it was 22.37% in Trumbull County. It was higher in 2019 at 26.63% in Mahoning and 30.25% in Trumbull.

It was much better during an Aug. 8 special election than most odd-year general elections. There was a single issue on that ballot, a failed effort to raise the threshold for passage of constitutional amendments. In Trumbull, turnout for the August election was 37.44% while it was 36.15% in Mahoning.

Early voting numbers in Mahoning and Trumbull for this general election are higher than for the Aug. 8 election.

“In-person voting has been nonstop,” Penrose said.

If the predictions of Penrose and McCabe are correct, this would be the strongest turnout for an odd-numbered year in the two counties since 2015. In that election, turnout in Mahoning was 44.21% while it was 47.32% in Trumbull.

“It will be the best turnout we’ve had in eight years in an odd-year election,” McCabe said.

There were three statewide constitutional amendments on the 2015 ballot: changing the state legislative redistricting policy, making it more difficult to create monopolies through initiatives and the first attempt to legalize recreational marijuana and giving 10 facilities exclusive commercial rights to grow it. The first two amendments passed while the marijuana measure failed.

VOTING

A voting law that took effect this year eliminated early voting on the Today before an election.

A photo identification is needed to vote early in-person and at polling locations.

To vote, a person needs one of the following: a driver’s license, a state ID card, a passport, a passport card or a military ID.

Forms of ID that were acceptable in past elections that are no longer valid include bank statements, utility bills, pay stubs, government checks or the last four digits of a person’s Social Security number.

Those who requested absentee ballots by mail could use either their driver’s license ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to vote.

Absentee ballots must arrive at boards of elections no later than Nov. 13 by mail and have to be postmarked no later than Today, the day before the election.

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

dskolnick@vindy.com