Request for absentee ballots have gone up in Ohio, but here in Franklin County those numbers have gone down, and the reason may be in person early voting numbers have increased significantly.

“You’re giving them 28 days instead of one day,” said Aaron Sellers who’s the Public Information Officer for the Franklin County Board of Elections.

Early voting numbers continue to rise in Franklin County.

When you compare this primary to the one back in 2014, the number of ballots mailed has gone down from nearly 18,000  to just over 15,000, but the number of people coming in person to vote during those same two years has increased from around 1,500 voters to almost 9,000.

“You really feel like you’re participating in the democratic process,” said early voter Susan Tobin

Tobin likes to early vote in person, because she doesn’t fully trust the absentee system.
 
“You have a little more confidence that your vote is going to be registered,” said Tobin.

The Franklin County Board of Elections website allows you to know when it’s received your ballot.

“We have a ballot tracking system to where you can go on your phone to track and make sure we’ve received your ballot,” said Sellers.

You can also just call them about your absentee ballot.

It’s something Diana Tambini has been doing for a while.

“It gives me the opportunity to look at candidates,” said Tambini.

She said now she comes here and drops off her ballot, because she doesn’t want to rely on the US Postal Service.

She says she understands things can go wrong.

Sellers said they have a system in place where they use barcodes to ensure people can only cast one ballot preventing any kind of voter fraud.