-By Warner Todd Huston
Well, my final assessment for the voting in Franklin County, Ohio (in the capitol city of Ohio, Columbus) is… everything went smoothly for the most part.
I visited half a dozen different precincts in the city and what was striking was the low numbers of voters throughout. Even into the 6PM hour the crowds were low. Only the early morning saw the numbers a little higher with up to two hours wait, but only for a short time.
There is one major reason for this: early voting. For some ridiculous reason, Franklin County had early voting all the way until midnight on the 3rd. Then, the polls opened for regular voting at 6:30 on the 4th. This took a tremendous number of voters away from voting on the actual election-day.
One thing, however, seemed universal in Franklin County. Provisional voting and paper voting confused many people. Talk radio in Columbus was a buzz with confused voters calling in asking questions about the paper ballots. Will they count? There was great confusion as to whether they would or not.
There was some small number of reports that things were a bit confused and chaotic early. But, for the most part, it all went very smoothly. I interviewed half a dozen people and they all said their voting experience was quick and painless.
In one case I observed an overzealous Obama supporter entering past the flagged areas to give out Democratic sample ballots. He had his Obama T-Shirt on. This campaign supporter was very energetic and hit just about everyone that came into the parking lot.
And this brings up the last point. The Obama supporters were thick at every single polling place I went to. There was anywhere from 3 to 6 of them at every polling place. I never saw a single McCain supporter working the polls. Not one. I did see plenty of McCain yard signs as I drove around, but they were outnumbered by Obama signs.
So, the final report is that there was little by way of trouble. Early voting lowered the rush numbers and polling places were sparsely peopled with voters all day except for a short time n the morning.
And there you have it. Thanks for everyone coming to the blog and watchiung this important battleground state.
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