Voter turnout in Tuesday’s general election may be the lowest of any gubernatorial election in Ohio history, and political scientists said Wednesday that’s not a good sign for Ohio voters or politicians.
Republican incumbents handedly won Ohio’s statewide races by at least 10 points, and voter turnout was widely believed to boost what was expected to be a GOP sweep.
Unofficial election results showed about 3.1 million Ohioans cast ballots in the gubernatorial race out of about 7.75 million registered voters — around 40 percent. That number excludes more than 161,000 outstanding absentee and provisional ballots.
The local turnout for Marion County was a little over 40 percent of registered voters.
That makes 2014 the lowest turnout since the secretary of state began tracking it in 1978. The next lowest year for turnout was 2002– the last gubernatorial election without a Senate race.
About the same number of ballots were cast — 3,228,992 — but fewer voters were on state rolls. Republican Bob Taft beat Democrat Tim Hagan 58 to 38 percent.
Factoring in Ohioans who are eligible to vote but not registered puts actual turnout closer to 35 percent, according to estimates by University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald.
Turnout always drops in non-presidential election years, but Paul Beck, a political science professor at Ohio State University, said Ohio voters — especially Democrats — lacked motivation to show up at the polls.
The gubernatorial race fizzled months before Election Day and there was no Senate race or state issue to drive voters.
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