Hancock County stayed firmly in the Republican column on Nov. 3 even as Ohio voters elected Democrats to the state’s top offices, according to unofficial results reported by the Ohio Secretary of State. The county’s results now head to the Hancock County Board of Elections’ official canvass, the step that turns election-night numbers into certified results.
For governor, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy received 58% of the vote in Hancock County, according to unofficial election-night results on the Secretary of State’s website reported by The Pulse, the University of Findlay’s student publication. Democrat Amy Acton carried Ohio statewide and will become the state’s first woman elected governor, but Hancock County voters preferred Ramaswamy by a wide margin.
The pattern held in the U.S. Senate race. Republican Jon Husted received 16,996 votes in Hancock County to 10,193 for Democrat Sherrod Brown, with Libertarian William Redpath receiving 1,187 and independent Greg Levy 526, according to Associated Press results with 59 of the county’s 60 precincts reporting. Husted took about 59% of the county’s Senate vote, according to The Pulse, even as Brown won the seat statewide.
Republicans ran strongest in the attorney general’s race, where Keith Faber received 65% of the Hancock County vote, according to The Pulse’s review of the unofficial results. Faber lost a close statewide race to Democrat John Kulewicz in the unofficial count, one of several statewide contests where Hancock County’s preference differed from the Ohio result.
Statewide Issue 3, the constitutional amendment writing Ohio’s photo ID requirement for voting into the state constitution, passed statewide with about 65% of the vote, according to The Pulse. The measure was one of the few statewide questions where the statewide outcome matched the direction of Hancock County’s Republican-leaning electorate.
Hancock County’s Republican margins, while comfortable, were narrower than in the last midterm cycle. In 2022, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine received 75% of the county’s vote, Dave Yost won 73% for attorney general and JD Vance received 66% for U.S. Senate, according to The Pulse’s comparison of the unofficial results — a sign that the county’s electorate shifted somewhat even as it stayed red.
What happens next is the official canvass. The Hancock County Board of Elections, based in Findlay, will review precinct results and consider qualifying provisional and late-arriving overseas and military absentee ballots before certifying the county’s results, which under the Secretary of State’s canvass schedule are due by Nov. 24. Only after certification do the unofficial winners in close local races become final.