More than 233,000 Butler County residents are registered to vote on Tuesday, and early voting is expected to eclipse 2008’s record number of early voters, which includes mail-in and in-office voters, according to elections data analyzed by the Middletown Journal/Hamilton JournalNews.

As of Thursday, 44,248 ballots had been requested and 37,889 ballots were either mailed back or cast at the office. Four years ago, more than 43,500 county voters requested an early voting ballot by mail or in the office, and nearly 95 percent, or 41,150, were cast early. While it’s difficult to know how many votes will be cast by the last day of early voting on Monday, Butler County Board of Elections officials are anticipating upwards of 50,000 early votes that will be counted once polls close Tuesday.

In 2008, about 5,000 votes were cast in Butler County in the last four days before Election Day. Traffic jams and long lines that year at the Princeton Road elections board offices brought out law enforcement officials for traffic control.

Butler County Elections Deputy Director Jocelyn Bucaro said sheriff’s deputies have been placed on standby should traffic snarl again this year.

“Hampshire and Princeton is a dangerous intersection anyway, so we want to make sure everyone is safe,” Bucaro said..

Voters are be permitted to bring Smart phones, Ipads or newspapers and notes in the voting booths, but Bucaro said people are asked not to talk on their phones while voting.

“We want to keep the voting booths as quiet and peaceful as possible,” Bucaro said.

Ohio is one of 35 states that allow some type of early voting. Ohio has allowed the so-called no excuse absentee and in-office pre-Election Day voting since 2006.

The change in early voting laws in Ohio came in response to the 2004 presidential election where there were long lines in many precincts up until and after the close of the polls, said Steve Huefner, the Ohio State University Professor and elections expert. Early voting has been pushed more by the political left in the 2008 and 2012 election seasons, said Huefner.

“And in 2008, you didn’t see those long lines,” he said. “In 2008, urban voters took advantage on the weekends, and particular the weekend before Election Day. For some voters it’s way more convenient to vote on a Sunday than on a Tuesday because of their work schedule.”

Today, First Lady Michelle Obama will be campaigning in Oxford on behalf of President Obama’s re-election bid and to push early voting.

More than a third of total votes cast by Thursday were done at the Butler County Board of Elections, said Bucaro. But there are still thousands of mailed out ballots that still have not been returned.

“Most voters wait to return their ballots at the end. We expect that to continue,” Bucaro said.

For the entire five weeks of early voting in 2008, more than 15,000 votes were cast at the elections office. As of Thursday, five days before Election Day, more than 14,200 had cast a vote at the office for the 2012 general election. Four years ago, only 9,321 in-office votes were cast.

Bucaro anticipates between 18,000 and 20,000 votes will be cast by mail or at the office this election season.

“We still expect more absentee voters to request and cast a ballot before Election Day,” she said. “I think those expectations hold, especially given the higher numbers we’ve seen since the start of early voting.”

Voters should not have to wait for long if there is a line at the elections office, Bucaro said. There are 30 electronic voting units at the elections office and six stations for voters who need to cast a provisional ballot or who just want to vote using a paper ballot.

Early voting today is from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m., and Monday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Polls are open Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Voters must bring a valid ID in order to cast a ballot.