Ohio 2026 General Election Live Updates

Military and overseas absentee ballots must be received (by mail) by boards of elections by Nov. 7 to be counted.

Key Events

Nov. 4, 2026 2:57 am Kaptur wins reelection in Ohio’s 9th US Congressional district

Nov. 4, 2026 1:49 am Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter defeats Ohio Republican incumbent US Rep. Max Miller

Nov. 3, 2026 11:09 pm Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson wins reelection, Associated Press projects

Nov. 3, 2026 11:00 pm Ohio Democratic challenger Don Leonard defeats incumbent Republican Mike Carey, AP projects.

Nov. 3, 2026 10:36 pm Ohio Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman wins reelection, AP projects

Nov. 3, 2026 10:07 pm Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce wins reelection, AP projects

Nov. 3, 2026 9:57 pm Congressman Latta wins reelection, AP projects

Nov. 3, 2026 9:43 pm AP projects Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Balderson has won reelection

Nov. 3, 2026 9:36 pm Rulli wins reelection, Associated Press projects

Nov. 3, 2026 9:35 pm Ohio Issue 3 passes, AP projects

Nov. 3, 2026 9:09 pm Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. David Taylor wins reelection, AP projects

Nov. 3, 2026 9:01 pm Jim Jordan wins reelection, AP projects

Nov. 3, 2026 8:17 pm AP projects Ohio Democratic U.S. Reps. Joyce Beatty, Shontel Brown, and Emilia Sykes have won reelection

Nov. 3, 2026 7:41 pm Polls are closed. The Ohio Capital Journal will report winners when races are called by the AP

Nov. 3, 2026 4:24 pm Turnout is brisk, but voting is generally smooth, observers say

Nov. 3, 2026 12:02 pm Election monitors say few issues at Ohio polls, stand at the ready

Nov. 3, 2026 11:59 am Democratic Ohio governor candidate Amy Acton casts her ballot in Bexley

Nov. 3, 2026 10:52 am Columbus poll workers report busy morning at near-east side voting location

Nov. 3, 2026 10:34 am After final Ohio rallies Monday, voting might be up on Tuesday

Nov. 3, 2026 9:05 am It’s Election Day! Here’s what’s at stake in Ohio

Kaptur wins reelection in Ohio’s 9th US Congressional district

By David DeWitt - Wednesday November 4, 2026 2:57 am

The Associated Press projects Ohio Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur has won reelection in Ohio’s 9th Congressional district.

Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter defeats Ohio Republican incumbent US Rep. Max Miller

By David DeWitt - 1:49 am

Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter has defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Max Miller, the Associated Press projects.

Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson wins reelection, Associated Press projects

By David DeWitt - Tuesday November 3, 2026 11:09 pm

The Associated Press projects that Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson has won reelection.

Ohio Democratic challenger Don Leonard defeats incumbent Republican Mike Carey, AP projects.

By David DeWitt - 11:00 pm

The Associated Press projects Democratic challenger Don Leonard has defeated Ohio Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Carey in Ohio’s 15th Congressional district.

Ohio Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman wins reelection, AP projects

By David DeWitt - 10:36 pm

The Associated Press projects Ohio Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman has won reelection.

Last updated: 10:36 pm

Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce wins reelection, AP projects

By David DeWitt - 10:07 pm

The Associated Press projects that Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce has won reelection.

Congressman Latta wins reelection, AP projects

By David DeWitt - 9:57 pm

The Associated Press projects that Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Latta has won reelection.

AP projects Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Balderson has won reelection

By David DeWitt - 9:43 pm

The Associated Press projects that Ohio Republican U.S. Troy Balderson has won reelection.

Rulli wins reelection, Associated Press projects

By David DeWitt - 9:36 pm

The Associated Press projects that Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli has won reelection.

Ohio Issue 3 passes, AP projects

By David DeWitt - 9:35 pm

The Associated Press projects that Ohio Issue 3 for a constitutional amendment requiring voter photo ID has passed.

Last updated: 9:35 pm

Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. David Taylor wins reelection, AP projects

By David DeWitt - 9:09 pm

The Associated Press projects that Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. David J. Taylor has won reelection in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional district.

Jim Jordan wins reelection, AP projects

By David DeWitt - 9:01 pm

The Associated Press projects that Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan has won reelection.

AP projects Ohio Democratic U.S. Reps. Joyce Beatty, Shontel Brown, and Emilia Sykes have won reelection

By David DeWitt - 8:17 pm

As of 8:16 p.m., the Associated Press has projected that Ohio Democratic U.S. Reps. Joyce Beatty of Columbus, Emilia Sykes of Akron, and Shontel Brown of Cleveland have won reelection.

Polls are closed. The Ohio Capital Journal will report winners when races are called by the AP

By David DeWitt - 7:41 pm

Polls are now closed in Ohio.

Regular reminder: The Ohio Capital Journal reports based off of the Associated Press calling races, so we will not report winners until they are called by AP.

In Ohio, early votes are counted first, and then Election Day votes. The biggest counties tend to take the longest to be fully counted.

Turnout is brisk, but voting is generally smooth, observers say

By Marty Schladen - 4:24 pm

With the exception of a bomb threat and scattered technical glitches, voting has been busy but smooth in Ohio, a coalition intended to ensure a trustworthy election reported Tuesday afternoon.

The Ohio Voter Rights Coalition has 1,100 volunteers for the heavily watched midterm. Most are working as poll monitors, but some are on call to quell disputes and others are attorneys available to settle legal questions.

Petee Talley of the Ohio Coalition on Black Voter Participation said there was an early afternoon bomb threat at a polling place located in Beverly Elementary School in Toledo. She said she hurried to the scene when she heard about it.

2026 Voter Guide

Races, deadlines, and the tools you need to cast your vote.

2026 Ohio General Election Voter Guide

“People had ballots in their hands when they were evacuated,” Talley said.

It took about an hour for police to ensure the building was safe so voting could resume. Some voters waited, while others said they couldn’t, Talley said.

WTVG reported that some voting machines were moved outside so people could vote there while the building was closed.

Talley said she and poll workers collected the phone numbers they could, so they could call people who were forced to leave after the location reopened.

Steve David, state director of All Voting is Local, said that his group has heard a few complaints that votes registered differently on printouts from what voters said they touched on voting screens.

“Make sure you check your ballot before you feed it into the tabulator,” he said.

Maria Bruno of Ohioans Against Extremism said her group dispatched poll monitors who have spotted U.S. Justice Department personnel at voting locations in three counties. Dspite pre-election fears from some that they might try to intimidate voters, Bruno’s group hadn’t received any such complaints, she said.

Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters said her group has fielded hundreds of calls from people with limited mobility who want to vote curbside.

“They do not need to leave their car,” Miller said, adding that people should call their local board of elections for curbside assistance.

If you have questions or complaints about today’s voting, call the Election Protection Hotline 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683.)

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Election monitors say few issues at Ohio polls, stand at the ready

By Susan Tebben - 12:02 pm

Members of the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition and its nonpartisan Election Protection program said there have been long lines at polling locations across Ohio, but the lines are moving and the few issues that have been seen are being resolved.

“In general, the strong turnout that we’ve seen during the early vote period has carried over to election day,” said Steve David, of All Voting is Local.

In a call with press on Tuesday morning, the coalition said there were no “significant disruptions” being reported at polling locations. The biggest activity has to do with changes to polling locations, an issue local boards of election and poll monitors with the coalition are helping voters handle.

“We’ve been getting folks out in the field to supplement the work that our BOEs have been doing, to provide additional signage and context to voters, encouraging them to check that they are at their correct polling location,” David said.

2026 Voter Guide

Races, deadlines, and the tools you need to cast your vote.

2026 Ohio General Election Voter Guide

More than 1,000 people were trained by the election protection program to be poll monitors, peacekeepers, or legal monitors, according to Catherine Turcer, head of voting rights group Common Cause Ohio.

A new aspect of the coalition’s work this year has been organizing legal help before, during, and after Election Day.

“We are, to the degree humanly possible, doing our best to record and document everything that comes up on election day so that we are well-positioned for any legal fights that come subsequent to election day,” said Maria Bruno, a legal organizer for the coalition.

Poll monitors are also keeping an eye on U.S. Department of Justice representatives coming to counties in Ohio. The federal agency announced they would have monitors in Cuyahoga, Franklin, and Medina counties. This is not unusual; the Justice Department has monitors every election.

According to the announcement, monitors were placed in every state “checking for compliance with the federal voting rights statutes that fall within the jurisdiction of the Division.”

Bruno said voters should not engage with them, “but we definitely want to know if, in anyone’s voting experience, they are coming across any DOJ people.”

“Hopefully they should not be interfering with voting in any way, shape, or form, and they should not be broaching that 100-foot barrier around the polling location, so if anyone witnesses anything to that effect, we want to know immediately,” Bruno said.

Overall, voters have seemed enthusiastic when talking with poll monitors.

“We asked voters when they came out of the polling location, ‘how was the experience,'” said Petee Talley, of the Ohio Coalition on Black Civic Participation. “Most of them, if not all of them, had a very positive experience.”

Voting rights advocates also mentioned 100,000 absentee ballots that are currently outstanding in Ohio, ballots that will need to be dropped in a drop box or delivered directly to local boards of elections. Because the deadline for absentee ballots has changed to election day itself, mailing the ballots on Tuesday will likely mean they won’t be received in time to be counted.

While the poll monitors have not reported significant problems with photo identification requirements Ohio has in place, coalition members said the primary showed that the strictness of the law caused more than 700 provisional ballots to be thrown out.

“This is a persistent issue and we see the real impacts of that choice that the Ohio legislature made to pass that law,” David said.

Ohioans are required to present a valid photo ID, such as an unexpired drivers license, to the polls to verify identity. If voters don’t have a identification, they can vote using a provisional ballot (ballots that are counted after election day), and can bring proper identification to their local board of election within 4 days to ensure the ballot is counted.

Polls are open until 7:30 p.m. Voters who are already in line when polls close can remain in line and vote.

The election protection hotline can be reached at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Last updated: 12:06 pm

Democratic Ohio governor candidate Amy Acton casts her ballot in Bexley