COLUMBUS, Ohio — We are now exactly seven weeks from the election on Nov. 5. As anticipation grows for the election, so does the number of registered voters. Increasing those numbers was the focus of National Voter Registration Day held on Tuesday.
Franklin County Board of Elections Spokesman Aaron Sellers says the county is on target to reach 900,000 registered voters for this election. This would be the first time the county has ever hit that number. Sellers added that, currently, Franklin County has more registered voters than any other Ohio county.
Registration numbers have grown since the March Presidential Primary. For that election, Franklin County had 886,119 registered voters.
As of Tuesday, the number stands at roughly 893,000. Sellers said that is even after the county removed about 26,000 people from the voter rolls who have moved or not voted in several years.
With 20 days to go until the registration deadline, he anticipates they will hit that 900,000 mark.
According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, 30,000 more people are registered to vote as of Tuesday compared to the March Primary Election for a total of 8,060,700.
The voter numbers will continue to grow until the registration deadline of Oct. 7, helped by National Voter Registration Day events across Ohio.
The Human Service Chamber of Franklin County teamed up with the Columbus Metropolitan Library to put on a nonprofit resource and voter registration fair outside the library’s main branch downtown.
Fateiya Bosat is a 19-year-old Ohio State University student who came to the fair to get information on registering so she can vote for the first time.
“Because I want to be a part of greater change,” Bosat said. “I want to be informed. I want to know what's going on in my community, how I can contribute to it, and I want to be a voter. I want to be somebody that is proud of the person that becomes elected to be president."
Human Service Chamber of Franklin County Executive Director Michael Corey calls the fair a success.
“We have a rough count of at least two dozen who have registered and another dozen that we've checked their registration,” Corey said after the first hour of the two-hour event. “They're all set. And we try to give them information so they know how they can vote, when they can vote and all of that."
Early voting starts Oct. 8 at county boards of elections offices. The state has also sent out absentee voter request forms.