COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio set a record for early and absentee voting in a midterm election this year.

According to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office, more than 1.55 million Ohioans either voted early or requested an absentee ballot for the midterm election, an increase of 3.9% over 2018, which was also a record-setting year.

In total, as of the close of polls Monday and the end of early voting, 1,392,767 votes were cast early, either in person or by returned absentee ballot.

LaRose said the increase was driven by early voting, with 549,771 people voting early in person at their county’s board of elections. This is up from 429,521 in 2018.

Absentee ballot requests were down from 2018, but still breached 1 million requests – 1,000,669. That number is down 5.8 percent from 2018. As of the end of the day Monday, LaRose said 842,996 absentee ballots have been returned to the boards of elections.

As of Monday afternoon, there are still 154,042 absentee ballots not received. If mailed, those ballots must be postmarked by Monday, Nov. 7. Any absentee ballots not sent in can still be turned in to the voter’s county’s board of elections.

Polls Tuesday are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.