Election directors in Mahoning and Trumbull counties were expecting low turnout before early voting started — and now anticipate even fewer people to vote.

“I don’t understand why people are not voting,” said Stephanie Penrose, Trumbull County Board of Elections director. “It’s crazy. I hear from people that it’s just the primary, which is disheartening. We’ve got a lot of local Republican-contested races, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in them, and there’s very little hot-button issues on the ballot.”

Before the start of early voting last month, Penrose expected turnout to be around 25% for the primary in her county. Heading into the weekend, Penrose lowered that to 20%.

“People are not requesting ballots,” Penrose said. “I expect to get busy on the weekend before the election, but it won’t be that busy.”

Tom McCabe, director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections, had predicted turnout to be between 23% and 25% for his county before early voting started. With very few people voting early, he revised it to between 22% and 23%.

McCabe said: “There aren’t any races that are drawing people out. It’s the major statewide races for governor and senator that bring people out to vote in the primary. There are no high-profile statewide races that are contested. We have local races, but they don’t draw a big number of voters. Local races are contested, but they’re not drawing much interest.”

If the projections are correct, turnout in Mahoning would be slightly lower than the 2022 and 2018 primaries, the last times gubernatorial candidates ran in primaries, and even worse than Trumbull during those years. They would be more in step with the 2014 primary turnout.

In the May 2022 primary, turnout in Mahoning was 23.24% and 25.83% in Trumbull.

In the 2018 primary, which had competitive gubernatorial primaries for both political parties, turnout was 24.81% in Mahoning and 24.98% in Trumbull.

Turnout for the 2014 primary was 21.86% in Mahoning and 20.45% in Trumbull.

Turnout in the counties – and throughout Ohio – is also low during presidential primary years when there is little to no competition at the top of the ticket.

In 2024, it was 23.79% in Mahoning and 27.37% in Trumbull. In 2020, it was 23.36% in Mahoning and 27.94% in Trumbull.

Early in-person voting ends this weekend.

It is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The Trumbull office is at 2947 Youngstown Road SE, Warren.

The Mahoning office is at Oak Hill Renaissance Place, 345 Oakhill Ave., Youngstown.

Polling locations will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

With this election, all mailed ballots must arrive at county boards of elections no later than 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, when polls close.

Previously, absentee ballots had to be postmarked by the day before the primary and arrive no later than four days after the primary to be counted. That was changed, effective with the May 2023 election, when there was a 10-day grace period for ballots to arrive at boards of elections.

The only voters who maintain the four-day grace period are those who cast ballots living overseas or in the military.

An approved photo identification is needed to vote early in-person and at the polling locations.

A voter needs one of the following: a driver’s license, a state ID card, a passport, a passport card or a military ID.