OHIO 18 Electoral Votes 
link to clickable map
Population 
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Ohio Secretary of State
Total Resident Population, July 1, 2016 est.
11,614,373
Total Registration, Nov. 2016
  7,861,025

Ohio has: 88 counties.
Largest counties (28 are 100,000 plus): Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Summit, Montgomery.
Largest cities (100,000-plus): Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton. 

Government
Governor: John Kasich (R) elected in 2010; re-elected in 2014. 
State Legislature: Ohio General Assembly  House: 99 seats  Senate: 33 seats
Local: Cities and Villages, Counties    NACO
U.S. House: 12R, 4D - 1. S.Chabot (R) | 2/ B.Wenstrup (R) | 3. J.Beatty (D) | 4. J.Jordan (R) | 5. B.Latta (R)6. B.Johnson (R) | 7. B.Gibbs (R) | 8.W.Davidson (R) | 9. M.Kaptur (D) | 10. M.Turner (R) | 11. M.Fudge (D) | 12. P.Tiberi (R) | 13. T.Ryan (D) | 14. D.Joyce (R) | 15. S.Stivers (R) | 16. J. Renacci (R).   >
U.S. Senate: Sherrod Brown (D) re-elected in 2012, Rob Portman (R) re-elected in 2016. 
2016
U.S. Senate: What was initially seen as a race to watch turned out to be non-competitive as Sen. Rob Portman (R) defeated former Gov. Ted Strickland (D), by 3,118,567 votes (58.03%) to 1,996,908 (37.16%), and Tom Connors (I) 93,041 (1.73%), Joe DeMare (G) 88,246 (1.64%) and Scott Rupert (I) 77,291 (1.44%) rounding out the field.
U.S. House:
All 16 House Members were re-elected by comfortable margins (the closest race was in CD1 where Rep. Steve Chabot (R) tallied 59.19% of the vote; all other Members obtained more than 60%). 
State Legislature: 16 of 33 Senate seats and all 99 House seats were up.  The Senate went from 23R, 10D to 24R, 9D and the House from 65R, 34D to 66R, 23D.
Ballot Measures: No statewide ballot measures qualified.

 State of Ohio
Secretary of State

Green Party of OH
Libertarian Party of OH
OH Democratic Party
OH Republican Party
Constitution Party of OH

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The Plain Dealer, p
Cincinnati Enq./Post, p
Newspapers
TV, Radio

Politics1-OH
Ballotpedia-OH


The Buckeye State
General Election -- Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voting Eligible Population*: 8,737,173.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 62.9%.

Voter Registration Deadline
: Oct. 18, 2016.
Early In-Person Absentee Voting: Oct. 19 - Nov. 7, 2016. >
     Official Results >

 
Clinton/Kaine (Dem.)
2,394,164
(43.56)
Duncan/Johnson (npa)
24,235
(0.44)
Johnson/Weld
174,498
(3.17)
Stein/Baraka (Grn.)
46,271
(0.84)
+Trump/Pence (Rep.)
2,841,005
(51.69)
McMullin (w/in)
12,574
(0.23)
Castle (w/in)
1,887
(0.03)
more w/ins (16)
1,853

Total........5,496,487

Total voters 5,607,641
Overview: Republicans signaled Ohio's importance by holding their Convention in Cleveland.  Ohio was indeed a battleground state, drawing visits from candidates and a barrage of TV ads. 
   There was one very awkward fact for the Trump campaign: the state's Republican Gov. John Kasich declined to endorse Trump.
  The extent of the rift became apparent when Trump state director Robert Paduchik penned an Oct. 15 letter to members of the Ohio Republican Party state central committee declaring that party chairman Matt Borges, who is close to Kasich, "does not represent or speak for the candidate and he no longer has any affiliation with the Trump-Pence campaign." [PDF] 
   Meanwhile, there were signs that the Clinton campaign was effectively conceding the state, although not giving up entirely.  After her Labor Day rally with Tim Kaine in Cleveland, where Clinton suffered a serious coughing fit, she did not visit the state again until Oct. 3.  Instead, visits by Kaine, Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton filled the gap.  Kaine spent significantly less time in the state as well. The closing week had a handful of visits, but was not filled as in other battleground states.  If the  U.S. Senate campaign had proved more competitive there might have been synergies that would have led the Clinton campaign to go all in.
   When the votes were tallied Trump
had the strongest showing since George H.W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis by almost 11 percentage points in 1988.  Trump carried 80 counties to eight for Clinton, finishing with a plurality of 446,841 votes (8.13 percentage points),
General Election Visits
Clinton  |  Trump
BALLOT [PDF]

See also: Michael Curtin and Joe Hallett.  Aug. 2015.  Ohio Politics Almanac, Third Ed. Revised and Updated.  Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press.


Presidential Preference Primary -- Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Democrats
160 Delegates: 93 District, 31 At-Large, 19 PLEO and 17 Unpledged.

details


Republicans
66 Delegates: 3 RNC; 22 at-large; 48 by CD (3 x 16 CDs).

details



General Election Winners in Ohio, 1992-2012
1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012
Clinton
40.18%
Clinton
47.38%
Bush
49.99%
Bush
50.81%
Obama
51.50%
Obama
50.67%
  and the details...
 
General Election -- Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voting Eligible Population*: 8,644,958.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 64.6%.

Voter Registration Deadline
: October 9, 2012.
Early In-Person Absentee Voting: October 2 - November 5, 2012.
     Official Results >

 
Alexander/Mendoza(Soc.)
2,967
(0.05)
Duncan/Johnson (Ind.)
12,502
(0.22)
Goode/Clymer (Const.)
8,151
(0.15)
Johnson/Gray (Lib.)
49,493
(0.89)
+Obama/Biden (Dem.)
2,827,621
(50.67)
Romney/Ryan (Rep.)
2,661,407
(47.69)
Stein/Honkala (Grn.)
18,574
(0.33)
6 Write Ins
107

Total........5,580,822



Total votes cast: 5,632,423.  

2012 Overview
Ohio, the quintessential battleground state, went to Obama-Biden by 166,214 votes (2.98 percentage points).  127,528 fewer votes were tallied in the presidential race than in 2008.  The Republican ticket carried 71 counties to 17 for the Democrats.
General Election Details
Obama  |  Romney
BALLOT [PDF]


General Election -- Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Voting Eligible Population*: 8,541,239.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 66.7%.

About 30% voted absentee:
1,744,753 absentee ballots were issued, of which 1,717,256 (98.4%) were counted...these included over 214,000 voters who voted in person by absentee from Sept. 30-Oct. 24.


206,859 provisional ballots were issued, of which 166,870 (80.7%) were counted.

Total Registration:
8,287,665
Official Amended Results >


Baldwin/Castle (Const.)
12,565 (0.22)
Barr/Root (Lib.) 19,917 (0.35)
Duncan/Johnson (Ind.)
3,905
(0.07)
McCain/Palin (Rep.)
2,677,820 (46.91)
McKinney/Clemente (Grn.)
8,518
(0.15)
Moore/Alexander (Soc.)
2,735 (0.05)
Nader/Gonzalez (Ind.)
42,337 (0.74)
+Obama/Biden (Dem.)
2,940,044
(51.50)
w/ins (6)
509
-
Total........5,708,350



Total votes cast: 5,775,369.

2008 Overview
After an intense campaign, Obama-Biden prevailed in battleground Ohio by 262,224 votes (4.59 percentage points).  The Republican ticket carried 66 counties to 22 for the Democrats.
General Election Details
Obama/Allies  |  McCain/Allies   |  Nader



General Election -- Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Voting Eligible Population*: 8,427,696.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 66.8%.


Total Registration: 7,979,630.
Voter registration deadline for the November general election was October 4, 2004.
Official Amended Results 


Badnarik/Campagna (NP)
14,676
(0.26)
+Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
2,859,768
(50.81)
David Keith Cobb (w/in)
192
Other w/in (3) 166
Kerry/Edwards (Dem.) 2,741,167
(48.71)
Peroutka/Baldwin (NP) 11,939 (0.21)
Total........5,627,908

Final results (post-recount) --amended official results as of January 4, 2005.

2004 Overview
Because of its importance to both campaigns, the Ohio was seen as the Florida of 2004, a must-win state.  The candidates made frequent visits, and their allies poured in resources.  Intense legal activity in the weeks leading up to Election Day suggested the possibility of Florida-type post-election debacle.  The focus led to high turnout; 925,910 more votes were cast in the race for president than in 2000.  Although the Kerry campaign held out thin hopes for Ohio as Election Night segued into the morning after, on the afternoon of November 3 Kerry conceded.  Nonethess legal activity continued into the post-election period, a recount of sorts occurred, and investigations were begun.  Final results following the recount put Bush's plurality at 118,601 votes (2.10 percentage points); the Republican ticket carried 72 counties to 16 for Kerry-Edwards.
General Election Details  |  Photos
Kerry/Allies  |  Bush-Cheney '04

General Election -- Tuesday, November 7, 2000
Voting Eligible Population*: 8,295,592.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 56.7%.


Total Registration: 7,535,188.
Official Results  


Browne/Olivier (Lib.)
13,473
(0.29)
Buchanan/Foster (Ind.)
26,721
(0.57)
+Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
2,350,363
(49.99)
Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
2,183,628
(46.44)
Hagelin/Goldhaber (NLP)
6,181
(0.13)
Harris/Trowe (w/in)
10
Nader/LaDuke (Ind.)
117,799
(2.51)
Phillips/Frazier (Ind.)
3,823
(0.08)
Total........4,701,998

.

Total votes cast: 4,795,989


2000 Overview
This bellweather battleground state which had gone to Clinton-Gore in 1996, returned to the Republican column.  Bush won with a plurality of 166,735 votes (3.55 percentage points) and carried 72 counties to 16 for Gore.  Historic Maps.
General Election Activities

1992 and 1996 General Elections
Archive Pages: 2012 | 2008 | 2004 | 2000 1992
Clinton (Dem.).....1,984,945 (40.18)
Bush (Rep.).........1,894,310 (38.35)
Perot (Ind.)..........1,036,426
 (20.98)
Others (5+w/ins)......24,283
(0.49)
Total........4,939,964

1996
Clinton (Dem.).....2,148,222 (47.38)
Dole (Rep.)..........1,859,883 (41.02)
Perot (Ref.)............483,207
 (10.66)
Others (4+w/ins).....43,122
(0.95)
Total........4,534,434