WARREN - Long lines and crowded halls have been a common theme in Ohio, as many voters have taken advantage of the state's early voting process.
Trumbull County is no different, with its numbers surpassing 2008 totals.
According to Kelly Pallente, executive director of Trumbull County Board of Elections, the high numbers were expected.
Article Photos
Tribune Chronicle / R. Michael Semple
First-time voter Shamara Golden, 18, of Liberty, seals her ballot and gets a kiss from her mother, Betty Golden, on Monday at the Trumbull County Board of Elections in Warren.
"I think we thought it could have even been higher numbers than what we had," Pallente said Monday night. "Still, we ended up with higher numbers than the last presidential election."
In all, 30,860 early voting applications were acquired by voters in Trumbull County, and 28,918 have been submitted. In 2008, early votes cast in the county totaled 25,012. Of the 28,918 early votes submitted, 17,876 were mail-in ballots and 10,516 were walk-ins. The mail-in ballots include 312 military or overseas voters and 321 ballots from nursing homes.
Overall, Pallente is expecting turnout of about 75 percent.
That isn't to say all of the early votes cast will count, though: Elections board members on Monday rejected 14 absentee ballots cast early for today's presidential election.
Pallente said 11 ballots were rejected because the ballot stubs were missing; one because the voter's address on the envelope didn't match the address on computer file; one ballot had a similar registration problem; and one person accidentally voted in the office and also mailed in a ballot, so one of the ballots was rejected.
The board will meet today to rule on other absentee ballot issues.