Columbus Dispatch...
Absentee voting breaking marks for an off-year 
October 30, 2011 

With 50 people an hour casting ballots at midday yesterday, absentee voter turnout continued to run heavy in Franklin County. 

Most attribute the heightened interest to the contentious state Issue 2 campaign. What’s not as clear is whether one side or the other is benefiting more. 

The number casting ballots in person at the Franklin County elections board tops that for the 2010 statewide and congressional elections at the same point in that campaign. And the quantity of mailed absentee ballots is far ahead of that from other off-year elections, when no statewide races are on the ballot. 

Other counties also are reporting impressive voter involvement. For example, Madison County already has almost 20 percent more absentees than for the entire 2009 general election, and more than triple as many as in 2007. 

How to gauge how the high turnout is affecting Issue 2? 

A Dispatch analysis of Franklin County’s 800-plus precincts shows healthy turnouts in almost as many areas that went for Republican John Kasich in last year’s race for governor as Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland, who won the county by about 9 percentage points. 

Of the 100 precincts with the highest absentee percentages so far, Kasich took 57, Strickland 43. 

But Strickland “won” those 100 precincts by more than 2,000 votes. 

Voters in Kasich’s best 100 precincts are casting absentee ballots at a rate nearly 30 percent higher than those in Strickland’s top 100. 

Still, a key question remains unanswerable: Are voters who backed Kasich last year going to vote for Issue 2, a referendum that would put a key piece of the governor’s agenda, Senate Bill 5, into effect? 

Seemingly, the answer is no because Issue 2 was down 25 points in last week’s Quinnipiac poll. Kasich beat Strickland by 

2 points statewide in 2010. 

“Many of our supporters, especially police and fire members, consider themselves Republicans and/or people who voted for Gov. Kasich,” said Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio, the labor coalition opposing Issue 2. 

Her assertion is backed up by anecdotes and numerous emails to Kasich from people who said they were Republicans and/or had voted for him, but felt differently because of Senate Bill 5. 

However, Jason Mauk, spokesman for backers of Issue 2, said the outcome of the 2010 race might have no bearing on this year’s vote. 

“We don’t view this as a partisan issue, so I wouldn’t try to force the turnout model into last year’s election results,” he said. “Gov. Kasich has made it clear that Issue 2 is part of a larger effort to get Ohio’s economy moving again.” 

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said he doesn’t think the Issue 2 vote represents any sort of referendum on Kasich, whose job approval rating has sunk to 35 percent in the Quinnipiac poll. 

“The referendum was nearly one year ago today when Ohioans swept an entire party out of statewide office at all levels because they sat on their hands during the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Nichols said. 

He acknowledged that Kasich has embraced Senate Bill 5 as “an important piece of what is needed to get Ohio back on track” and “incredibly important to local governments so they don’t raise taxes on Ohioans and kill more jobs.” 

In the fall of 2010, Strickland’s campaign manager said the Democrat stood little chance of winning without the month-plus early-voting period. And Issue 2 opponents are pounding the drum to get voters to the polls before election day. 

Earlier this week, House Democrats staged events in four cities, including Columbus, touting early voting. When the anti-Issue 2 campaign We Are Ohio took a four-day bus tour across Ohio early this month, it began and ended at boards of elections with admonitions for Senate Bill 5 opponents to cast their ballots as soon as possible. 

“In an off-year election, we know that voter turnout is important,” Fazekas said. “We’ve been knocking on doors and making phone calls since late July/early August.” 

She said the referendum campaign is “a little different” because so much contact came up front, while gathering signatures from more than 900,000 registered voters — a state record — to qualify for the ballot. 

“During the signature-collection period we had more than 10,000 volunteers on the ground,” Fazekas said. “Those volunteers transitioned over into our volunteer base for early-vote and get-out-the-vote activities for Election Day.” 

Legislative Republicans tried to cut the early-voting period starting with this election but were thwarted by another Democratic-led referendum that will be considered by Ohio voters in November 2012. 

Mauk said Building a Better Ohio has mounted a strong push to get its supporters to the polls, too. Kasich made a video calling today “Super Saturday,” urging an early “yes” vote for Issue 2 . 

“In just the last few days, our volunteers have contacted more than 1.5 million likely voters by phone or in person to encourage early voting,” Mauk said. 

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