Few glitches, light turnout in voting across Ohio today

Few glitches, light turnout in voting across Ohio today

By MARC KOVAC

news@vindy.com

COLUMBUS — Two polling locations, one Lima and one in Lorain County, had to be moved following bomb threats today, and ballot issues in Franklin County caused some confusion for Columbus-area voters.

Additionally, weekend storms and tornadoes that hit southwestern Ohio disabled some polling places, leading elections officials to direct voters to new sites.

Otherwise, Election Day has been incident free on light turnout statewide, Secretary of State Jon Husted told reporters during a midday conference call.

“It’s largely gone pretty smoothly,” Husted said. “Turnout has been low... modest, you can insert the term you want.”

Polls are open until 7:30, and results will be posted on the Secretary of State’s website (www.sos.state.oh.us) thereafter.

About 260,000 ballots were cast as of Friday through in-person or mail-in absentee voting, well below the 556,000 or so cast during the presidential primary in 2008.

Husted said he didn’t expect to see much party-switching — voters selecting the ballot of an opposing political party with hopes of affecting the outcome — given the low turnout numbers.

“Frankly, looking at the results today, it’s been hard to get people who are registered with their own political party to get out to vote,” he said.

Husted said the bomb threats and other issues have occurred at precincts in past elections. In such cases, voters are directed to alternative sites and cast paper ballots.

“We’ve had incidents like this in the past,” Husted said. “We hope that’s what they are, threats and not actual bomb situations. ... It’s unfortunate, but we have 4,880 polling locations. They’re just going to be issues like this that pop up. It’s just part of the reality of the election.”