A total of 1,385 Champaign County voters did not wait until today to cast their ballots in the primary election. Instead they chose the absentee ballot route, dropping by the county board of elections to vote or requesting ballots be mailed to them. Of that number, 814 voted at the board offices. As of Monday afternoon, 497 ballots had been returned by mail.

Early voting in Ohio started Feb. 17 and ended at 2 p.m. Monday.

The Secretary of State’s Office issued the following advice Monday to those who have not returned absentee ballots: It’s too late to mail them. Absentee ballots must have been postmarked by Monday and must arrive at the county Board of Elections within 10 days of the election. Absentee voters may deliver the ballots to the board of elections by 7:30 p.m. today. A relative may return ballots for a voter.

Kathy Meyer, deputy director of the county board of elections, said that of those requesting absentee ballots, either onsite or through the mail, 959 requested Republican Party ballots, 401 requested Democratic Party ballots, 23 requested nonpartisan ballots and two requested Green Party ballots.

Visiting local polls on election day still is the most popular option. Polls are open until 7:30 p.m. today.

Independents

According to updated information from the board of elections on Wednesday morning, one Independent filed a petition by Monday’s 4 p.m. deadline. Barnaby Ofori did file as non-partisan candidate for David Faulkner’s seat. The signatures on Ofori’s petition have not been checked yet. Doug Hoffman is challenging Faulkner today in the Republican primary for the nomination for the county commission seat.

Quite a few voters are expected to have their say this election since it is a presidential primary with hotly contested races on both Democratic and Republican ballots.

As noted in previous Daily Citizen articles, today’s ballots include a few local issues, two Republicans running for county commissioner, two Republicans running for state senator, a few Democrats running for U.S. Representative and several incumbent Republicans who face no opposition for their county seats.

There’s still time to throw hats into the ring and run against those who win today’s primaries, but latecomers will have to settle for write-in status and their names will not be on Nov. 8 general election ballots. The deadline to file as a write-in candidate is 4 p.m. Aug. 29.

Issues for the Nov. 8 election must be filed by Aug. 10.