Tuesday saw third lowest primary voter turnout in Ohio since 1986

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -Ohio has chosen who will go head-to-head on the November ballot, but the number of voters that came out for the spring primary was the third lowest since 1986.

According to Ohio Secretary of State, who overseas all state elections, the unofficial voter turnout for Tuesday’s primary was 20.64%.

Meaning of nearly 8 million registered voters in Ohio, only 1.6 million voted in person or by absentee.

The online records from the Sec. of State only go back to 1986 and there has been only two years worse than 2022, and that was May 6, 2014 with 16.95% and May 7, 2002 with 19.4%.

Primary years, where voters are choosing who will run for president always have better turnout than non-presidential years.

For example in 2016 when voters were trying to decide if it should be Ohio Gov. John Kasich or Donald Trump for Republicans or Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders for Democrats, 43.66% pf registered voters turned in a ballot.

In 2008 Democrats were deciding between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Republicans John McCain and Mike Huckabee.

That year saw the highest turnout in an even year primary since 1986 with 46.04%.

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