That’s how much Ohio’s early in-person voting has increased compared to the same point in the 2022 midterms, with roughly 195,000 Ohioans casting ballots in the first five days, versus just over 50,000 at the equivalent point four years ago. The surge comes as Ohio’s Senate and gubernatorial races attract national attention and hundreds of millions in political advertising. However, mail ballot requests are down. About 631,000 Ohioans have requested absentee ballots so far, down from 871,000 at the same point in 2022, a drop of nearly a quarter million. Some counties saw mail ballot requests fall by as much as 47 percent. Election officials say it is too early to explain the shift definitively, but it comes as President Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that mail voting is rife with fraud.