Voter turnout Tuesday in Cincinnati and Hamilton County appears to be the lowest in at least 45 years.
When polls closed at 7:30 p.m., the Board of Elections posted an unofficial voter turnout of 26% in the county overall and 24.2% in the city, both the lowest since at least the mid-1970s. Election officials said they would need to dig through their archives to find out if or when a lower total ever was recorded, because the records available only go back to 1975.
The previous low on record for the county was 29.3% in 2019. The previous low for the city was 29% in 2007.
Election officials were bracing for low turnout, which often happens in off-year municipal elections like this one, but they had predicted turnout in the range of 30% to 35%.
It wasn't immediately clear what impact the low turnout might have on the outcome of races, including those for mayor and city council in Cincinnati. City voters also were deciding whether to approve a charter amendment that would dramatically change the way city government works, while county voters were deciding the fate of levies for children's services and parks.
Though the turnout Tuesday was a new low, the downward trend in municipal elections began more than 40 years ago and has been gathering steam ever since.
The high watermark, according to the Hamilton County Board of Elections, came in 1977 when almost 70% of the city's registered voters went to the polls. That was the year that a young Jerry Springer made his political comeback and became mayor, just three years after admitting to paying prostitutes with personal checks.
Turnout for municipal elections rose and fell in the years that followed, but the overall trend showed a decline.
Elections in the early 1990s were the last to see more than half the city's registered voters cast ballots. The numbers dipped below 30% for the first time in 2007, with a record low of just under 29%.
Turnout in the past two municipal elections, in 2013 and 2017, wasn't much better, coming in around 29.5%.
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