COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — There have been three days of early voting for Ohio’s August Special election and numbers are already much higher than expected.

On the first two days in Franklin County, 2,934 people voted with 2,063 of those voters being registered Democrats, 376 Republicans and 495 Independent voters.

The Franklin County Board of Elections has also received 11,842 absentee ballot requests, 6,431 by registered Democrats, 2,220 registered Republicans and 3,191 Independent voters. You have until one week before election day to request an absentee ballot, but the way to do it changed under a new law.

“That was a decision the General Assembly made,” Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R-Ohio) said. “I candidly did not push for that. It is not something was asking for.”

To request an absentee ballot in the past, all you needed was a piece of paper and a pen to write down certain required information. Under the new law, you must apply for an absentee ballot using a form prescribed by the secretary of state’s office.

Despite what some advocacy groups are saying, LaRose said he will be flexible.

“Say they had a form from 2017 or 2018, if they use that form, we are going to accept it,” LaRose said. “If I was really trying to be a stickler about this I could potentially reject those but we don’t want to do that. We want make sure that we’re creating maximum opportunities for Ohioans to request an absentee ballot.”

LaRose was asked if he’s been consistent in the forms he will choose to accept.

“Oh 100%. We have followed the letter of the law,” LaRose said. “We’ve been 100% consistent about this and it’s not surprising that sometimes people play politics.”

As far as campaigning goes, LaRose has been on the road encouraging a ‘yes’ vote on issue 1, which would make it more difficult to amend the state’s constitution. He said he believes in the issue and is well within his purview to spread that message.

“As a public official, I have my official responsibilities but also in my off-duty time can advocate for things I care about,” LaRose said. “That’s a well-known fact and every Secretary of State who has held this office manages to wear both hats.”

Larose did testify in favor of getting rid of recurring August special elections, but then did show support to bring it back for issue one.