Over the past several months, Pew collected data about the 2012 presidential election from nearly every state and the District of Columbia. We used the findings to create a snapshot of each jurisdiction, focusing on how many people voted, how long they waited to cast their ballots, how they cast them, and how many ballots were not counted. These snapshots will be released over the coming months, five at a time, and the Election Data Dispatches will take a closer look at the latest snapshots each week.
In the 2012 presidential election, approximately one-third of the more than 5.6 million ballots cast in Ohio were cast before Election Day, surpassing early vote totals for 2008, when almost 30 percent of ballots were cast early. The increase was due in part to absentee ballot applications being sent to all registered voters, a first for the state.
Additionally, even with more absentee ballots cast than in 2008, fewer were rejected: Approximately 13,000 were not counted in 2012, compared with almost 26,000 rejected in 2008.