By Scott Halasz
XENIA — Nearly 71 percent of Greene County’s registered voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s presidential election.
A total of 81,650 citizens participated including 14,333 during the early voting period and 15,850 via mail, according to numbers provided by the board of elections.
While the total number of voters was lower than the 2012 and 2008 elections, Tuesday’s percentage is up from 2012’s 67.3 participation rate. The 2008 election, during which outgoing President Barack Obama won his first term, is still considered the highlight year for turnout when 83,729 citizens (73.3 percent) voted.
But election officials were still ecstatic with the 2016 result.
“It was exciting to see the interest,” Board of Elections Director Denise Percival said. “We felt that we had an excellent turnout. That was very pleasing to all of us.”
There were no major problems reported at the polls as 51,467 residents went to one of the 146 precincts.
“We actually were quite pleased with the day,” Percival said. “The first two hours of the day seem to be the heaviest and the last two hours. You get that start-up frenzy and you work through it.”
Percival said the board will launch its official count Nov. 19, the first date allowed by the state, and will take all 10 days to make sure everything is accurate. The 1,600 outstanding provisional ballots will be counted during this time as well, Percival added.
