Ohoians Early Voting In Droves While Husted Continues His Fight to Close the Polls

Across the state, urban boards of election are busting records for the number of voters showing up to vote early in person.

The first day of early voting last Tuesday October 2 brought hordes to voting locations in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and other urban areas.

Yesterday the final day of registration, when voters could also vote at the same time. From Franklin County we hear than over 4,200 people showed up at their early vote center, and that by 5 p.m. they had broken their record for the most early voters in a single day. (Polls were open until 9 p.m. yesterday).

The Franklin County Democratic Party said,

Volunteers drove over 300 new registrants and voters yesterday. Shortly after 7PM the buses from the president’s event arrived and the turnout soared.

From the Hamilton County Democratic Party, we learned,

If the line at the Board of Elections last night was any indication, people are fired up and ready to vote. By 5:30, 864 people had already voted and at 8:00 the line waiting to vote extended down the stairs, out the door and at least 50 feet down the sidewalk.

And in Cuyahoga County yesterday, more than 3,700 people voted before the end of the day. The festive atmosphere there included a serenade in the early evening from the famous Shaw High School marching band, which assembled on the steps of the Euclid Avenue Church kitty-corner from the board of elections in their bright red uniforms and played for over an hour. There was food and there were judicial candidates, of course! Always judicial candidates!

Meanwhile, secretary of state Jon Husted has decided to continue his fight to shut down the in-person early voting window the three days before the election — the days which saw the heaviest traffic in 2008. After an appeals court ruled against him last week, he has now said he will take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Stay tuned.