Clint Fuhrman doesn’t spend much time at his apartment in Highland Square.
The 32-year-old Akronite, who travels a lot for work, helped stage a music festival in Kentucky last week. He’ll fly out to California for a couple more shows before the winter puts a damper on outdoor concerts.
In between, he said, “You gotta vote.”
Fuhrman, who could have flown directly to California, came home for the sole purpose of casting his ballot in the 2016 presidential election. Before taking off again, he joined 925 other Summit County residents who slipped their ballots into a big blue box on Wednesday to kick off early voting in Ohio.
Every weekday — and two Saturdays and Sundays — from now until Nov. 8, registered voters can request and cast an absentee ballot with the confidence that their vote didn’t get lost in the mail.
The process, available to Summit County voters at the board of elections’ new facility at 500 Grant St. in Akron, takes about 10 to 15 minutes from start to finish.
Research shows Democrats prefer the convenience of early voting. Registered Democrats, in fact, pulled four times more early voting ballots than Republicans did on Wednesday, according to election data.
A couple dozen of them, including many working for the Ohio Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign, slept in tents and grilled out the night before early voting began. In the morning, they brought coffee, fliers and played music in the parking lot of the voting center.
Before officials opened the early voting center at 8 a.m., nearly 100 anxious voters lined up outside.
“If you’re voting, please get in line,” yelled Joe Masich, director of the Summit County Board of Elections.
Moments later, they poured into what looked like a BMV office but sounded more like a game show.
Come on down
The early crowd sat in chairs, waiting to begin the process of receiving and casting their absentee ballots.
“You are the first people to vote in-person in Summit County,” deputy director Paula Sauter said, smiling as the early birds applauded their part in the democratic process.
In this topsy-turvy election season, many voters prefer to see every last twist and turn in the campaign before casting their vote on Election Day.
“Anything could happen before Nov. 8,” said Matilda Lamberty, a Clinton supporter. “But my mind is made up.”
Just then, a poll worker yelled “Kelly Mahoney,” and Lamberty’s daughter stood up. The boisterous crowd clapped as Mahoney, already late for work, walked up to the counter like she was on the Price is Right.
“Bob Barker just called you down,” joked Lauteef Bass, a Goodyear Heights resident who also voted early after deciding that this election is too important to “mess around.”
In the mail
While thousands plan to vote in person, the board of elections will continue to mail absentee ballots to voters’ homes.
These mail-in ballots, which are identical to the in-person absentee ballots handed out Wednesday, must be returned to the board of elections no later than Election Day. If mailed, they must carry a timely postmark.
Masich said his staff loaded 50,393 absentee ballots onto a U.S. Postal Service truck first thing Wednesday morning. The ballots should be arriving soon for those who requested them.
“It’s the highest number we’ve ever sent out on the first day,” Masich said.
Nearly 14,500 absentee ballots are headed to registered Republicans. That’s 956 more ballots sent to Republicans in a single day this year than were mailed over the entire early voting period in 2012, which was a week longer.
The uptick in ballots requested by Republicans is partly due to voters like Dan Hudkins, a Moose Lodge president and Ellet resident.
He and his wife are lifelong Democrats. But Hudkins said the couple is supporting Trump this year.
“He can do whatever he wants. He’s got my vote,” Hudkins said.
It’s unclear how many Democrats switched parties this year by pulling a Republican ballot in the primary. Some, like the Hudkins, did it to support Trump. Others did it to stop him.
Either way, the phenomenon has made it difficult for political fortune tellers to read the partisan breakdown in early voting figures and predict how they’ll all add up when the sealed ballots are opened on Election Day.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug .