COLUMBUS — So far more Democrats than Republicans have requested and cast absentee ballots either by mail or in person in Ohio ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, signaling potentially greater interest than the last gubernatorial election in 2014.

Ultimately total voter turnout will determine the level of interest, but absentee ballot requests might provide an early gauge. The battles for the party nominations for governor have been heated on both sides of the aisle.

Statewide, voters requested 220,051 absentee ballots and have cast 128,276 of them as of the close of business on April 27, according to figures released this week by the secretary of state’s office.

At this point in 2014, the year leading to the re-election of Republican Gov. John Kasich, 183,000 absentee ballots had been requested and 122,000 cast.

“It’s hard to read too much into these numbers,” said Marc Clauson, professor of history and law at Cedarville University. “If it was a huge margin, I’d be concerned about the differences. It all varies from election to election. It’s a midterm, and overall Democrats tend to be more enthusiastic about early ballots, and Republicans will wait. We’ll have to wait to see the election itself.”

In terms of the statewide ballot, voters have choices in the party nominations on both sides of the aisle for governor and on the Republican side for state treasurer and U.S. senator. They also face a single statewide ballot issue proposing to amend the state constitution to reform how Ohio redraws congressional districts every 10 years.

As of the end of last week, 115,005 absentee ballots had been requested by Democrats with 49,214 of them already cast by mail and 18,949 cast in person. By comparison, 91,050 had been requested for the Republican ballot with 35,443 already mailed in and 16,812 voted in person.

Absentee ballots had also been pulled for nonpartisan ballots, so that they can vote on ballot issues and tax levies, as well as for the Green Party ballot.

The trends in Lucas County reflect that of the state as a whole. A total of 3,867 absentee ballots had been requested, including 3,124 by mail, 694 pulled and cast immediately in person, and 49 military ballots.

Democrats had requested 1,646 of the mail ballots and, of those, 771 had already been cast. Democrats cast 524 of the in-person ballots.

Republicans requested 1,296 ballots by mail, cast 582 of them, and represented 154 of the in-person ballots cast.

But the opposite has been true in neighboring Wood County, which is more of a swing county in terms of past voting performance. More Republicans have pulled and cast absentee ballots there than Democrats.

So far, a total of 1,668 absentee ballot applications had been requested with 640 already cast by mail and 378 cast in person. A single military ballot was cast.

Of the 1,259 applications requested by mail, 667 came from Republicans and 461 from Democrats while the other requests were for non-partisan or Green Party ballots. Of the 378 requested and cast in person on the spot, 175 were cast so far by Democrats and 170 were cast by Republicans.

Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Monday to be included in the final tally, but in-person voting at selected county board of elections’ locations will close at 2 p.m. that day.

Contact Jim Provance at jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published May 3, 2018, 7:36 p.m.