Originally scheduled for March 17th, Ohio’s presidential and down ballot primaries were postponed until tonight due to health concerns related to the Coronavirus outbreak. Voting was also converted into an almost all mail-in process for the first time in the state. There will be limited in-person voting for people with medical needs or who do not have an address.
Once “polls close” at 7:30 eastern, county election officials will begin processing the returns. Unlike a traditional election night where counties usually provide partial returns, the state Secretary of State has advised county officials they should only provide returns once they have completed their tabulation for the night. All votes must be reported to the state before they can be released to the public. As each county will take a different amount of time to report results, we will have rolling updates and partial statewide returns but once a county has reported that will be it for them for tonight. Ballots had to have been postmarked by yesterday and received by May 8th to count. This may cause us to be unable to call a winner in some races if they are close.
The most watched House race on the Democratic side is in the 3rd Congressional District. Progressive activists are backing Morgan Harper over four term incumbent Joyce Beatty in the heavily Democratic Columbus district.
Republicans also have a number of congressional primaries on the ballot today.
And of course, the Democratic presidential primary is also on the ballot.
President Donald Trump is unopposed in the Republican primary.