Election Season Begins Tuesday

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – 9 p.m. Monday, October 5th, marks the deadline for voters requesting to register for Ohio’s 2026 General Election.

Muskingum County Board of Elections Specialist Cheryl West announced that Tuesday, October 6th, is the first day registered voters can visit the Board of Elections office to take advantage of Ohio’s early voting privileges.

“You have a choice of waiting until election day, which is November 3rd or you can take advantage of the early voting hours, which start on the 6th of October. And if you go to our website there’s hours posted. As we go along, the hours get… there’s extended hours, we also get weekend hours. So you have 28 days in order to do your early voting here in the office. That’s the only place you can do that. Election Day, you can’t vote in the office. You have to go to your precinct to vote,” West said.

In person voting will be suspended on Monday, November, 2nd, so that the office can concentrate on setting up the precinct polling locations. Additionally, the Board of Elections are asking for residents to get required training and paid for assisting poll workers on election day. 

“At each voting location, there are different locations throughout the county for people who choose to vote on election day,”West said. “And we are required to staff those election locations with community members. We have some people that are long term election workers, we have some that are not able to work this election. So we are in need of election workers. It is an opportunity to serve the community. You learn something about the election process from our perspective and you get to help other people.”    

The board of elections website is an informational tool that can provide valuable information such as: a sample ballot, the proper identification voters need to present, any procedural changes and if you are eligible to vote.