LaRose: More than 8M Ohioans registered to vote

Over 8 million Ohioans were registered to vote as the state begun early voting on Tuesday, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said.

WITH VOTER REGISTRATIONOVER... AND THE FOCUS SHIFTINGTO CASTING BALLOTS -- WE'RECHECKING IN WITH OHIOSECRETARY OF STATE FRANKLAROSE.YOU'LL REMEMBER WESPOKE WITH THE COMMONWEALTH'SSECRETARY OF STATE LAST WEEK.AND HE SAYS KENTUCKY IS READY.FRANK LAROSE... IS EQUALLYPOSITIVE ABOUT READINESS.Julie2:22 Where are we atthis point with absentee voterrequests and voterregistrations.

Can you giveus someperspective?

03:00 The goodnews Julie is over the weekendwe've seen a large number ofpeople get registered to voteand so now Ohio has actuallygone over eight million voterregistrations for the firsttime.

That's an excitingthing and we're happy to seeOhians taking advantage ofthat.3:143:22Over 2 million Ohianshave already requested theirabsentee ballot.

That tellsyou Ohians know this is asecure process and a great wayto make their voice heard.

3:31(JULIE) So over 2 million haverequested.

How does thatcomparwith 4 years ago?(larose) We are shattering allrecords from the past.

Infact in 2016 at this pointfewer than a million absenteeballots had been requested.That was the same case in2012.

Fewer than a million atthis point and3:59 We thinkwe're going to see all timerecord breaking numbers forabsentee voting and earlyvoting this year and ourcounty boards of elections aregoing to be ready.

They areready.4:07We've put in place a61-point checklist for everyboard of elections to followthat was devised along withthe CDC and Ohio Dept.

OfHealth.

If you feelcomfortable going to thegrocery store you should feelcomfortable coming to vote.Those are the kind of safe andhealthy environments we'recreating in every pollinglocation as well as the earlyvoting centers all throughoutOhio.SECRETARY LAROSE SAYS HISFOCUS IS STILL ON RECRUITINGMORE POLL WORKERS.

HE SAYSOVER 46-THOUSAND OHIANS HAVESIGNED UP AND HE'S PUSHING TOGET 55-THOUSAND SO WE HAVE ARESERVE FORCE READY TO GO.

YOUCAN SIGN UP AT VOTE-OHIO-DOT-GOV.