CELINA, Ohio — Mercer County voters are in the final days of early in-person voting for the Nov. 3, 2026 general election, with the county Board of Elections open Saturday, Oct. 31, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and again Sunday, Nov. 1, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. for the last day of early voting, under the Ohio Secretary of State’s 2026 voting schedule.
The Mercer County Board of Elections is located at 101 N. Main St., Room 107, in Celina, and can be reached at 419-586-2215, according to the Secretary of State’s county boards directory. Early in-person voting began Oct. 6 and runs through Nov. 1; there is no early voting on Monday, Nov. 2, the day before Election Day.
Voters who requested an absentee ballot by mail face a hard deadline this year. Under Senate Bill 293, non-UOCAVA absentee ballots must be received by the board of elections by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3, to be counted — there is no longer a post-Election Day grace period, according to the Secretary of State’s schedule. Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned on Oct. 27 that it might already be too late to mail a ballot and have it arrive in time, a warning reported by The Columbus Dispatch, so Mercer County voters still holding a ballot should deliver it in person to the board office in Celina.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail passed on Oct. 27 at 8:30 p.m., according to the Secretary of State’s 2026 schedule. Military and overseas (UOCAVA) ballots are the exception to the Election Day receipt rule: those ballots must be received by mail by Nov. 7 to be counted.
On the Nov. 3 ballot, Mercer County voters decide contested county offices — including commissioner and auditor races covered in NewsForce247’s first-pass county preview — along with statewide races for governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state, treasurer, two Ohio Supreme Court seats and U.S. senator, and statewide Issue 3. Voters can preview their sample ballot through the board of elections or VoteOhio.gov before heading to the polls.
Polls across Mercer County will be open on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Voters in line at 7:30 p.m. may still cast a ballot. Voters should bring an accepted form of photo identification for in-person voting, whether early or on Election Day.
What happens next: early voting ends Sunday, Nov. 1, at 5 p.m., and the county’s focus shifts to Election Day. The board of elections will post unofficial results after polls close Nov. 3, with official certification to follow under the Secretary of State’s calendar. The board has not published a county early-vote turnout total for this update, so no turnout figure is reported here.
Photo: Eric Lochtefeld, CC BY-SA