Early in-person voting enters its final week in Fairfield County on Monday, with the county board of elections at 951 Liberty Drive in Lancaster open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. as voters decide the November 3 general election, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s voting schedule.
Monday opens the longest stretch of early-voting hours of the fall in Ohio. Fairfield County voters can cast ballots in person at the Lancaster board office every day this week, with hours running 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday and again Wednesday through Friday, an extended day Tuesday that runs to 8:30 p.m., Saturday hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and a final Sunday session on November 1 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday also carries the week’s sharpest deadline. Applications for absentee ballots by mail must be received by the board of elections by 8:30 p.m. on October 27, and under the state law that took effect this year, voted absentee ballots themselves must reach the board by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day to be counted, with military and overseas ballots exempt from that deadline.
Fairfield County voters are deciding far more than the statewide races at the top of the ballot. The county’s November 3 ballot carries municipal, library and school issues across the county, including school funding requests that would repay bond issues for building and renovating school facilities, alongside the contested state and federal races that have drawn campaigns across central Ohio all fall.
Board officials have encouraged voters who are voting by mail to return their ballots in person at the board office or its drop box rather than risk a late mail delivery, and early voters can review a sample ballot for their precinct through the Secretary of State’s website before they arrive so the trip through the voting booth goes quickly.
For voters who wait for Election Day, polls across Fairfield County will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3, at assigned neighborhood polling places — a different location from the single early-voting site in Lancaster, so the board urges residents to confirm their Election Day polling place in advance.
After the polls close on November 3, the board will report unofficial results for the county’s races and issues, and NewsForce247 will follow the Fairfield County returns, including the school and library questions, as they are certified in the days that follow.