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Smooth voting in Ohio
Mahoning County: Election Night
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There were very few, if any problems, reported in the Mahoning Valley.
WARREN — Voting went relatively smoothly across Ohio.
Despite the high voter turnout, Trumbull elections officials say election day went smoothly, with 78 percent of its results being tabulated and placed on its web site by 10 p.m.
But elections officials still expected to work late into the night to provide the its complete vote count because of the separate step required to tabulate its approximately 26,000 paper ballots. About 21 percent of Trumbull voters voted early this year.
The elections board received 96 percent of its paper early voting ballots by election night — 12,094 of them being voted at the elections board office, the other 13,886 being mailed to voters, said Kelly Pallante, elections board director.
But for technical reasons, Trumbull County’s absentee results were going to be tabulated after the electronic results were complete, Pallante said.
Trumbull elections officials made plans to stay late in case scanning and tabulating the large number of paper ballots took a great deal of time, she said.
The previous high number of paper ballots voted in Trumbull County was 12,384 during the last presidential election in 2004.
There were no other problems of any magnitude reported in either Mahoning or Columbiana counties.
Elsewhere in Ohio, voting went smoothly as well.
Even often-troubled Cuyahoga County, where a federal judge ordered the board of elections to keep 21 Cleveland precincts open late during the March primary, had few problems with a new voting system and saw its polls close on time at 7:30 p.m.
“It was a snap. I walked in, got the ballot, and was out in about 20 minutes,” said Roger Sherman, 42, who backed Republican John McCain Tuesday evening in suburban North Olmsted.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said voting went smoothly, except for some scattered confusion over when provisional ballots should be used.
Poll workers in some precincts in a few counties mistakenly gave some voters provisional ballots when they should have been given regular ballots. The confusion arose because some poll workers weren’t familiar with the state’s voter identification laws.