It's Election Day in Ohio. Our journalists will update this file with the latest information on today's voting for Issue 1 on abortion and Issue 2 for recreational marijuana, the Akron Board of Education and suburban mayor's races in Barberton, Green, Norton and Tallmadge.

See all the local election results here with news coverage below.

Summit County early votes in on Issue 1 and 2

With 20 counties yet to report, Summit County has published the preliminary results of early votes for Issue 1, the constitutional right to abortion, and Issue 2, a law legalizing marijuana. Results are now coming for local races on the county election board’s website.


Issue 1 vote is passing statewide with 65% of the preliminary vote. Issue 2 is passing with 57% of the vote.

In Summit County, 72% of early votes support Issue 1. And 61% of early votes support Issue 2.


Issue 1 ahead with less than half of Ohio counties reporting

With less than half of Ohio's 88 counties reporting preliminary early votes, Issue 1 is ahead with 338,808 of the 509,431 ballots counted so far. That's 66.5%, a figure that is sure to change as more early votes are counted and the first of the Election Day ballots are counted and reported.


Summit County, as of 7:56 p.m., has yet to report early vote counts.

Reporting on early ballots expected soon as polls close

Polls have now closed in Ohio at 7:30 p.m.


As bipartisan teams prepare to transport ballots and memory cards from voting machines in Summit County’s 158 polling locations, workers at the central office on Grant Street will publish the preliminary results of absentee ballots processed and tabulated so far.


The initial reporting of these early votes will cover absentee ballots cast in person at the Early Vote Center or received by mail or left in the dropbox at the board of elections office before the polls closed. Mail-in ballots postmarked by Monday that arrive four days after the election will be counted if in proper order.

Summit County voters requested 43,279 absentee ballots in this November election, a 44% increase from the August special election.


Early voting turnout may preview tightening Issue 1 race

In the proxy war over abortion rights in August, 22 Ohio counties rejected an effort by Republicans, who knew abortion rights would be on November ballot, to make it harder to amend the state constitution.


Now, with abortion rights plainly on the ballot, those 22 counties are lagging the other 66 in at least one measure of enthusiasm — the early vote.

A Beacon Journal analysis of absentee ballots cast through Sunday, the last day of in-person early voting, shows an 11% increase in turnout among the 22 counties that kept it easier in August to enshrine abortions rights in the Ohio Constitution this November. But turnout is nearly double (up 20%) in the 66 counties that wanted to make it harder to amend the constitution.


Our analysis includes Cuyahoga County absentee ballot data from Nov. 3 and 4 that is not reported in the Secretary of State's daily reports.


The data do not tell the whole story of early voting or the current election. People who saw the August Issue 1, which would have required a 60% vote instead of a simple majority to amend the constitution, as bad for democracy may also oppose abortion. And tens of thousands of mail-in ballots are expected to arrive and be counted at county boards of elections in the next four days.

But surging enthusiasm among the 66 more conservative counties could erode the lead abortion rights supporters thought they had in recent polling. A Baldwin Wallace University survey conducted after early voting began last month showed 58% of Ohioans support the current Issue 1.


Turnout statewide, compared to August, was down the most for Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Lucas and Portage counties. And up the most for Shelby, Franklin, Stark and Summit.


Akron voter points out medicinal benefits of marijuana

Roughly 20 people came and went from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Akron around 2:30 p.m. to cast their ballots, several of them on their lunch break.


A couple voters chatted with a reporter at the polling place about their choices.


Kyle Miller said he voted yes on both Issues 1 and 2.

On Issue 1, he said he voted yes because he believes that people should be able to make decisions regarding their own bodies and that the government shouldn't have a say in those decisions.


Miller voted yes on Issue 2 because smoking marijuana and getting a six-pack after work are not that different, he said. He also extolled the benefits of medicinal marijuana, saying that people might benefit if it was more widely available. Judy James said she also voted yes on Issue 1.


"I've just always felt very strongly that it's a women's right to choose," the 67-year-old said. She also voted yes on Issue 2. "Well, alcohol's legal. Why isn't marijuana?" James asked.


Lifetime resident observed 'highest turn out he's seen' in Norton

A bit before 2 p.m., about 15 people were casting their ballots at the Norton Community Center.

A few chatted with a reporter at the polling place.


Aaron Burnette, sat in his truck outside the community center and said this was the highest election turnout he's seen in his lifetime of living in Norton.


For mayor, the 47-year-old cast his vote for Amber Johnson. On Issues 1 and 2, he voted no on both.