With polls opening today, nearly 30% of registered voters in Trumbull and Mahoning counties have already voted early in person or by mail.

Early turnout numbers for both counties are a bit lower than the statewide percentage.

In Ohio, 2,532,260 people voted out of the 8,159,898 registered, according to statistics provided Monday afternoon by the Ohio Secretary of State. That’s 31%.

In Mahoning County, 29.8% of voters cast early ballots, either in person or by mail, while 28.9% did so in Trumbull County as of Monday afternoon.

Voting in person was a more popular method than voting by mail.

In Ohio, 1,536,778 people voted in person Monday afternoon, while 1,147,634 requested absentee ballots and 995,482 returned them Monday afternoon. The statewide mail return rate was 87% as of Monday afternoon.

In Mahoning County, 48,608 of 163,093 registered voters cast early ballots, either by mail or in person, while 39,820 of Trumbull County’s 137,685 registered voters did so as of Monday afternoon.

In Mahoning, 28,703 people voted early in person, with 23,585 requesting absentee ballots and 19,905 returning them as of Monday afternoon.

That 84% return rate for mail-in ballots is tied with Lawrence for the fifth lowest among Ohio’s 88 counties.

This is likely because an issue with a vendor caused a significant delay for some Mahoning County voters in receiving their mail-in ballots.

Statistics show that 190 people have canceled their mail-in ballot requests since Friday. They either voted early in person or will vote today at their polling place.

In Trumbull, 22,345 people voted early in person, with 19,433 absentee ballot requests and 17,475 returned as of Monday afternoon.

Trumbull’s 90% mail-in ballot return rate is among the highest in the state. Belmont is first at 92 percent, followed by seven counties at 91 percent, then 11 counties, including Trumbull, at 90 percent.

Polling stations are open today from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. No votes will take place at county election boards. Voters must go to their polling station to vote.

Mail-in ballots had to be postmarked by Monday and must reach county boards of elections no later than Saturday, four days after the election, to be counted.

Voters can also drop off their ballots in county election board drop boxes or hand deliver them to the board before 7:30 p.m. tonight.

As for who voted early, those unaffiliated with any political party outnumber the total number of Republicans and Democrats combined in Ohio.

Across the state, 1,376,856 unaffiliated voters cast ballots early Monday afternoon, compared to 707,741 Republicans, 447,656 Democrats and seven Libertarians.

In Mahoning County, only 468 more unaffiliated voters had cast early ballots as of Monday afternoon, compared to the combined total of Democrats and Republicans.

A total of 24,538 unaffiliated voters cast early ballots, compared to 12,364 Democrats and 11,706 Republicans in Mahoning.

Although more unaffiliated voters in Trumbull County voted early than Democrats or Republicans, it was not more than both political parties combined.

There were 17,953 unaffiliated early votes cast Monday afternoon in Trumbull, compared to 11,444 Democrats and 10,423 Republicans.