2024 Election: Live updates on local races in Butler County
It's Election Night, and tens of thousands of Butler County voters have cast their ballots. Follow along for updates on local races, ballot issues and more.
This story was last updated at 8:12 p.m.
The polls have officially closed in Ohio.
In Butler County, nearly 100,000 people cast their ballots in-person on Election Day, while almost 90,000 voted early or via absentee ballot. The Butler County Board of Elections reported the overall turnout as 72.2% at 7:30 p.m., just below the high-water mark of 73.1% in 2020. People in line by 7:30 are still allowed to vote.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, county boards of elections in Ohio have been allowed to begin counting early and absentee votes before the polls close today, so the state may have results sooner than some swing states.
At 8 p.m., former President Donald Trump led Vice President Kamala Harris 59% to 40% in Butler County with roughly 45% of ballots counted. The Associated Press had Harris ahead of Trump in Ohio 53.3% to 46% with 28% of votes counted at 8 p.m.
So far, the Associated Press has called 14 states, with Harris at 35 electoral votes and Trump at 95.
Butler County has more than three times as many registered Republicans as registered Democrats, but a vast majority of voters in the county are unaffiliated. Turnout among registered Republicans stood at 97.2% at 7:30 p.m., while 96.6% of registered Democrats had cast their ballots. Turnout among unaffiliated voters stood at 63.9%.
Republicans had previously trailed Democrats in turnout by almost 10% prior to Election Day.
Locally, Republican Diane Mullins leads Democrat Vanessa Cummings 60.1% to 39.9% in the race for the 47th State House District which represents Oxford and Hamilton. Republican Sara Carruthers previously won the district by 64.9% in 2022.
Incumbent state senator George Lang, a Republican who represents most of Butler County in the 4th Senate District, is leading Democratic challenger Tom Cooke 60% to 40%. Lang won the seat with 60.5% of the vote in 2020.
Two county commissioner seats are on the ballot this yar. In one seat, incumbent Republican Don Dixon leads Democratic challenger Chantel Raghu 62.8% to 37.2%. Dixon has consistently run uncontested races prior to this year.
In the other county commissioner seat, incumbent Republican T.C. Rogers leads Democratic challenger Tamara Small 61.9% to 38.1%.
This page will be updated regularly throughout the night as more information about local, statewide and national races becomes available. To hear more about how voters were feeling at the polls in and around Oxford, read our coverage here. For a detailed look at how local campaigns have been funded, read our breakdown online.
Which Ohio races could impact the federal government?
The most high-profile race in Ohio this year is between incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman.
Republicans are favored to gain control of the Senate this year, though Brown has polled slightly ahead of Moreno throughout the campaign. That margin has narrowed in the final weeks, however, and Brown is the last Democrat in statewide office in Ohio who won under a partisan election.
The New York Times showed Brown narrowly leading Moreno 50% to 48% at 8:10 p.m. with 26% of votes in.
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives is tight, too. The New York Times lists just 43 of the 435 seats as competitive enough to decide the race, including Ohio's 9th and 13th Congressional Districts.
In Toledo, current Republican state representative Derek Merrin is challenging Democratic U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur for her seat in the 9th Congressional District. Kaptur was first elected to her seat in 1982 and is now the longest-serving women in the U.S. House. The New York Times rates the race as lean Democrat, and Kaptur won in 2022 by 13.3 points.
The 13th Congressional District covers Akron and the surrounding area, and it is currently represented by Democratic incumbent Emilia Sykes. She's being challenged by Republican Kevin Coughlin, a businessman who previously served in the State Senate from 2001 until 2011. The New York Times rates the race as lean Democrat, and Sykes won by 5.4 points in 2022.
No other congressional districts in Ohio are likely to flip this year. Butler County is currently represented by Republican Warren Davidson, who won by almost 30 points in 2022.
