Eighty-nine voters from across Ohio cast ballots in the primary election during the last Golden Week, the period during early voting when people can both register to vote and cast ballots.
The five-day period has been maligned by critics as having potential for voter fraud and being burdensome on boards of elections.
Legislation approved by the Ohio General Assembly and signed by the Gov. John Kasich abolishes Golden Week, beginning with the November election, by shortening the period for early voting by a week.
Golden Week supporters criticized the legislation as a measure that would limit voting opportunities.
But for this primary election, it wasn’t even an issue in more than half of Ohio’s counties and amounted to just 0.7 percent of the absentee ballots cast through that first week of early voting.
Fifty-four counties had no ballots cast by newly registered voters during the most recent Golden Week, according to an unofficial tally from the Ohio secretary of state’s office. Of the 34 counties in which people registered and voted at the same time, 28 of those counties collected ballots from three or fewer people.
In total, 12,226 absentee ballots were cast in Ohio during Golden Week, including the 89 from newly registered voters. County boards of elections were open during the week between April 1-4 and on April 7.
Early in-person voting will continue through Saturday. Absentee ballots may be requested through Saturday. If returned by mail, they must be postmarked by May 5 and received at the elections board by May 16 to be counted.
Absentee ballots may also be delivered in person to county elections boards offices until the close of polls on May 6.
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