2022 Ohio August primary election results

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Estimated voter turnout is only 5% to 10% in Franklin County for this second primary that cost Ohio taxpayers at least $20 million.

“It was a full county-wide primary, but it didn’t feel like it,” Franklin County Board of Elections Public Information Officer Aaron Sellers said Tuesday.

Sellers said only 11 of the 39 races in the county were contested.

“That’s another reason, probably, why turnout was lower, because a lot of races in the primary, there was one person to vote for,” Sellers said.

Sellers said the state gave the county $700,000 to put on the May primary. This time, Franklin County got $1.5 million.

“I think that we’ll probably spend that allotted money,” Sellers said.

He said Franklin County usually has 320 voting locations, but for Tuesday’s voting, there were only 156.

“The locations that they were normally in, schools, churches, had things going on and couldn’t accommodate us today,” Sellers said.

As far as results go, the final tally will not be certified for a few weeks, but Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said voters should have an idea of where candidates stand by the end of the evening Tuesday.

“In many cases, they may be conclusive, if you see one candidate that has a lead,” LaRose said. “But if it’s a real tight margin, then it may be too close to call as of this evening.”

A typical midterm primary election in Ohio sees about one million voters come to the polls.

LaRose said final voter turnout is still unclear, but early voting numbers were not great.

“On close of early voting, we had almost 150,000 Ohioans cast ballots,” he said. “That’s good news, but again, not the levels we wanted to see.”