Ohioans cast more Republican ballots during the primary election in May. But Democrats still came surprisingly close.
Newly updated state voter data helps illustrate the underlying reasons why.
In the May 5 primary election, 907,273 Ohioans requested Republican ballots while 815,922 requested Democratic ballots, according to the official count from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.
This was a dramatic change from the 2022 primary election, when Ohioans cast roughly 1.1 million Republican ballots, double the roughly 540,000 ballots that Democrats cast that year.
A Signal Statewide analysis found the shift was driven by two main forces: Republican-affiliated voters turning out at lower rates than their Democratic counterparts, and previously unaffiliated voters choosing Democratic ballots far more often than Republican ones.
Democratic turnout surged despite there being no competitive races at the top of the ticket, a sign of high enthusiasm among these voters. Governor candidate Dr. Amy Acton had no primary opponent while Senate candidate Sherrod Brown only had a nominal one. There were similarly no competitive races at the top of the Republican ticket, which was a sharp contrast from 2022, when GOP voters decided a hotly contested U.S. Senate primary and a crowded governor’s race.
Political analysts traditionally caution against reading too much into primary election turnout. But there are other signs Democrats are highly engaged in what could be a good political year for their party, if for no other reason than the traditional backlash that occurs against the party that controls the White House.
“It’s one signal in part of a greater trend that we’re seeing,” said Alex Lisner, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party. “And it’s something that I hope we can carry over into November.”
Bryan Gray, a Republican strategist who ran Jay Edwards’ successful primary campaign for Ohio treasurer, said he doesn’t “garner a lot” from the turnout numbers.
“Democrats have proportionally more super voters in their base than Republicans do, and Republicans didn’t have any exciting primaries to drive turnout in May,” Gray said.
How we did this analysis
We used Claude, the AI tool, to help with this analysis. The software helped us analyze records for all 7.9 million registered state voters to form our conclusions. State records don’t show which candidates voters support, but they do note if they have a partisan affiliation – as defined by whether they chose to request a Republican, Democratic or nonpartisan ballot within the past two years.
The AI tool helped us tally how many Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated voters there were heading into the election, including breaking them down by county. Then, we used it to see how many voted in May, and how many changed their affiliation – such as a previously unaffiliated voter choosing to request a ballot for one of the major parties. A reporter reviewed the outputs and checked the findings against official results from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office and the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
Drop in Republican turnout
First, on the Republican side: the main reason for the drop in turnout compared to the 2022 primary is the larger share of registered Republicans who opted to stay home.
Republicans are the largest official political party in Ohio, with 1.4 million voters registered with the party heading into the May election.
But only 54% of them voted in May, compared to 64% of the state’s roughly 780,000 registered Democrats.
This is the simple explanation why Republican ballots fell from 1.1 million in the 2022 primary election to 907,273 in 2026.
On a percentage basis, the lowest Republican turnout occurred in several rural counties – Mercer, Darke, Noble, Harrison and Perry were the bottom-ranking five.
Republican turnout also was soft in Ohio’s largest counties, which are home to many GOP voters even though Democrats regularly win them comfortably overall. Cuyahoga, Summit and Franklin all fell in the bottom half of Republican turnout rates.
Democrats attract more unaffiliated voters
Meanwhile, voters cast 815,922 Democratic ballots in May – which is nearly 36,000 more ballots than there were registered Democrats heading into the election.
The reason? The support Democrats got from the pool of 5.7 million unaffiliated voters. These voters are a mix of people who’d previously voted in a partisan primary but not recently, and those who have never voted in a partisan primary election at all. A small percentage vote in primary elections, but only have requested nonpartisan ballots.
Of these unaffiliated voters, about 288,500 requested Democratic ballots in May.
These new – or at least previously unengaged – Democrats were especially concentrated in some key areas for the party: the Cleveland/Akron area (Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake, Portage and Summit counties), Cincinnati (Hamilton County) and Columbus (Franklin and Fairfield counties).
As a result, the number of Democratic votes cast exceeded the number of previously registered Democrats in 49 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Republican votes didn’t exceed the number of previously registered Republicans in any county.
Republicans also saw previously unaffiliated voters pull GOP ballots. But the roughly 180,400 who did so weren’t enough to make up for the number of registered Republican voters who stayed home.
A small part of the Democratic turnout boost was thanks to Republican voters. About 43,500 registered Republicans cast Democratic ballots last month, while about 13,200 registered Democrats requested Republican ballots.
Cuyahoga Dems see their biggest primary gain in years
Cuyahoga County, a Democratic Party stronghold that has seen a long-term trend of falling voter turnout, shows how the statewide pattern played out on a community level.
Democratic turnout was up in 56 of 59 of the county’s communities compared to the 2022 primary election. The three where it fell were eastern suburbs: Highland Hills (down four votes), University Heights (down 50 votes) and Beachwood (down 231 votes).
Republican turnout fell in all but three Cuyahoga County communities – Independence voters cast 601 more Republican ballots than four years before, and voters in Newburgh Heights cast four additional votes while GOP voting in Linndale was unchanged.
Overall, 40,262 more Democratic ballots were cast in Cuyahoga County compared to four years earlier, while voters cast 17,729 fewer Republican ones.
All told, the county saw the number of registered Democrats rise from 137,865 to 182,112. The 44,003-voter registration increase was the largest Cuyahoga County Democrats have seen for a primary midterm election since at least 2014.
Here’s a chart showing Cuyahoga County Democratic registration changes during primary elections.
David Brock, chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, said this was the first time that the party saw increased registration for years. He also said more Democrats voted in the May primary in Cuyahoga County than in the primary elections in 2018, 2022 or 2024. (Records show Democratic turnout in May was about 300 votes higher than in 2018, and well above those other years.)
The increase in turnout came as the local party emphasized getting out the vote, Brock said, which included following up with voters who requested mail-in ballots to make sure they submitted them.
“I think this bodes well for November in this county,” Brock said.
How party affiliation works in Ohio
Ohio has what’s called an “open primary” system – meaning voters are allowed to request any party ballot they want during primary elections, when the political parties nominate their candidates.
Someone is considered a partisan voter only if they’ve requested a Republican or Democratic ballot within the past two years. The vast majority of Ohioans – about 5.7 million – are unaffiliated. In many cases, that’s because they only vote in November elections, but someone also can be unaffiliated if they request an issues-only ballot during primary elections, allowing them to vote on local tax levies and other ballot issues.
But once someone requests a partisan ballot, they’re listed in state records as either a Republican, a Democrat or a Libertarian, the three officially recognized political parties in Ohio.
