COLUMBUS, Ohio — Early voting ended Sunday evening at the Franklin County Board of Elections with long lines.
The line continued to grow, wrapped around the building, until it was cut off at 5 p.m.
Voters told 10TV they waited one, two and even three hours to cast a ballot. There were also traffic backups on the way to the polls.
“Traffic coming here was even worse. That was the hardest part but it is worth voting,” said Katie Kapala, of Galloway.
With the decent weather, many people made the best of the wait.
“My ancestors fought hard for this, but to not vote is like they died in vain,” said Shawnta Stafford, of Gahanna.
“I think that there is enthusiasm,” said Sosuna Biru, of Gahanna.
Some people wondered why a county with more than 900,000 registered voters only has one location for early voting.
“Final time was two hours 20 minutes here. It is kind of interesting every county gets one election place for early voting regardless of the size of the county,” said John Archer, of Worthington.
At a campaign event for Bernie Moreno Sunday evening, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the last day of early voting is expected to be busy. He said he would support having additional early voting polling locations in the county.
“Ten years ago when I was a state senator I proposed that, but it is up to the state legislature. It is in the state law that it is one location per county and of course they can make those really big locations the county board of elections decides that. That is two Democrats, two Republicans so many counties have opened big early voting centers, but the idea of having more than one early voting site per county is something I have supported for a long time but again that would require a change in state law,” LaRose said.
As of Sunday evening, close to 237,000 people had voted early at the polls or with an absentee ballot in Franklin County. About 2.5 million people had submitted ballots across the state.
LaRose said the early voter turnout could break a record.
“That is great news. We are on track to break the record we broke the record in 2020 and we are gonna break it again. I think it is proof Ohioans trust the process and they know how much of a difference it makes,” he said.
Polls will be open on Election Day from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.