What is the demographic breakdown of voter turnout in Ohio's last election?
Executive summary
Ohio’s certified 2024 general election turnout was 5,851,387 ballots cast, or 71.7% of 8,159,946 registered voters, making it the state’s second‑highest turnout by registration percentage and slightly below 2020 levels [1]. Exit polling and contemporaneous reporting suggest turnout fell most in big urban counties, white voters made up the plurality of participants, and party and early‑vote patterns skewed toward Republicans — but comprehensive, publicly released cross‑tabs by race, age and gender for turnout remain limited in the public record [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. Overall turnout and historical context
The Ohio Secretary of State certified 5,851,387 ballots in 2024, representing 71.7% of registered voters and the state’s second‑highest turnout by registration percentage after 2020 and 1992 [1] [3]. Nationally focused trackers note a slightly different metric — turnout of eligible voters — where Ohio’s 2024 rate was reported as about 65.4%, illustrating how turnout figures change depending on the denominator used (registered vs. eligible voters) [6].
2. Race and vote choice: exit polls and available signals
Available exit‑poll snapshots and reporting indicate white voters dominated the electorate and leaned toward Trump, while non‑white voters largely supported Harris: NBC News exit polls cited whites as roughly 84% of respondents with about 60% backing Trump, non‑white voters favored Harris at roughly 71%, and Black voters reportedly gave Harris roughly 89% of their vote in Ohio [7]. These figures describe vote choice within demographic groups rather than a full demographically disaggregated turnout rate; state officials have not published comprehensive official turnout cross‑tabs by race in the sources provided [7] [1].
3. Age, youth and early‑voting patterns
Early‑voting totals were substantial: more than 2.53 million Ohioans voted early (in‑person plus returned absentee), roughly a third of registered voters, with unaffiliated voters making up a plurality of early ballots and Republicans outpacing Democrats in early votes by the margins cited in Secretary of State data [4]. Reporting also flagged an increase in newly registered 18‑ and 19‑year‑olds relative to 2020, though that is a registration change rather than a definitive turnout percentage for youth [4]. Exit and early‑vote analyses suggested younger voters could influence competitive races, but full age‑cohort turnout breakdowns were not provided in state certification materials linked here [4].
4. Partisan skew and who turned out early
Multiple outlets emphasized that Republican identifiers made up a larger share of early voters in 2024, with reporting counting more early Republican voters than Democratic ones and noting that primary patterns showed stronger Republican participation in recent cycles — a dynamic reflected in early‑vote composition on the eve of the election [8] [4]. That partisan skew carried into general results: Trump won 55.14% to Harris’s 43.93% and carried 81 of 88 counties, a product of both vote choice within demographic groups and where turnout rose or fell geographically [2].
5. Geography: urban declines and county variation
Turnout dropped in many of Ohio’s largest urban counties: Franklin County fell to about 66% from 72% in 2020 and Cuyahoga County declined from 71% to 64%, contributing to an overall statewide decline from 2020 and signaling depressed turnout among Democratic base voters in cities according to local reporting [5] [2]. Conversely, turnout increased since 2020 in 18 counties, mostly ones Trump carried easily, underscoring that turnout shifts were highly uneven across the state [2].
6. Limits, caveats and the reporting gap
The publicly cited materials provide reliable totals, vote choice patterns from exit polls, early‑vote party breakdowns and county‑level turnout trends [1] [7] [4] [5], but they do not include a single, authoritative state release of turnout rates disaggregated simultaneously by race, age, gender and party for the certified 2024 results; therefore precise demographic turnout rates (for example, turnout percent among Black voters or turnout by age cohort) cannot be stated from the provided sources alone. Where exit polls are cited, they describe composition and vote choice among those polled rather than a full census of who turned out [7].
Bottom line
Ohio’s last election produced high overall turnout by registration (71.7%), an electorate dominated numerically by white voters who leaned toward Trump in exit polls, significant early voting with a partisan tilt toward Republicans, and notable turnout declines in Democratic strongholds like Franklin and Cuyahoga counties — but a complete public dataset tying certified ballots to detailed demographic turnout rates was not available in the reporting provided, limiting the ability to quantify exact turnout percentages by race, age and gender [1] [7] [4] [5].