Ohio's Secretary of State reports there has been heavy voter turnout today and a few problems.
Jon Husted says interest in this election is high throughout the state.
“We are seeing higher turnout in the suburban parts of the state. That’s consistent with the fact that it looks like Republican turnout is outpacing Democrat turnout in the election cycle so far.”
Husted says new electronic poll books deployed in many counties seem to be working well. He says there haven’t been equipment failures but there have been a few problems with poll workers. Husted says one poll worker in the Cleveland area was arrested for having a gun in the polling place.
“There was seemingly not an issue of anyone being injured thankfully in that particular case. But when you have 40,000 poll workers working at over 9000 precinct locations, you will have these issues that come up from time to time. And we have plans and security backup plans to make sure we handle those things as quickly as possible.”
Husted says that poll worker wasn’t the only one who was arrested.
“There was a poll worker, in one county, was being sought after by the U.S. Marshalls and they came and picked him up at the polling location.”
But Husted notes there were stories of dedication by poll workers, such as Herb and Beverly Truax of Franklin County, who went out of their way to make sure their shift was covered.
“Herb was supposed to work at the polls today. He died last night and before he died, he asked Beverly to cover his shift at the polls today which she did. And it’s really a great story of two people who, despite having a lot of better, more important things to worry about decided that their responsibility to democracy was so important that they would fulfill it.”
Husted says he plans to stop by that polling place to pay his respects to Beverly Truax. Polls close at 7:30 this evening.
