No long voter lines reported on first day of early voting in Franklin County

Since the controversial August special election to change the Ohio Constitution was marked by an unanticipated surge of early voters, eyes were on the kickoff to early voting Wednesday for the Nov. 7 general election in Franklin County, the state's largest county and a Democratic stronghold.

So how long was the wait in line at the county Board of Elections to be among the first votes cast on Issue 1, which, if approved, would enshrine abortion rights in the Ohio Constitution and effectively eliminate many of the GOP bans and restrictions?

There was no line on what was a brisk, sunny morning when an initial couple dozen people entered the building when it opened at 8 a.m., said Luis Gil, a Columbus City Council candidate who had set up shop in a lawn chair in the half-empty parking lot outside the Franklin County Board of Elections voting center on Morse Road.

While there was a steady stream of voters by late morning into early afternoon, there were no lengthy lines waiting outside.

The turnout was a far cry from the scene in August, when throngs of voters formed a long line around the building to cast their ballots on a GOP bid to make it harder for voters to pass Issue 1 now, a bid that failed 57% to 43%.

"I was really shocked," Gil said, "because I was expecting something that was similar to the issue in August, when the line was way back."

Joe Motil, who is challenging incumbent Andrew Ginther for Columbus mayor and was also in the parking lot handing out campaign literature, said he also "was expecting a line and just gobs of people. ... So, I'm surprised.

"The August election, it was almost chaotic out here. It was a circuslike atmosphere."

But despite the optics, Wednesday might still end the day close to Day 1 early voting in August, according to numbers provided by the Franklin County Board of Elections: Through 12:45 p.m., just over 800 people voted, with the center set to close at 5 p.m., said Aaron Sellers, spokesman for the elections board. That is about just over half the 1,488 people who voted in person on Day 1 in August, with more than four hours to go in the afternoon, he said.

By around noon, the lunchtime rush had yet to materialize, though there was a steady stream of voters entering through the election center's doors every minute or so, without waiting in any outside line.

"Maybe in a day or two there will be more people," said Adam Shimbirolays, 52, a campaign worker there to support of Columbus City Council candidate Farxaan Jeyte. "This afternoon, I think a lot of people will come.

"Yeah, they will come out. It's a school day."

Ashana Ashley, 49, is an election precinct worker who had a training session at the center earlier in the day, and decided to also go ahead and vote after seeing the lack of a line. She was there primarily to support Columbus City Schools' 7.7-mill, nearly $100 million levy.

"There's a lot of repairs (needed on Columbus City Schools' buildings), a lot of advancement that needs to be made, and I wanted to make sure that I voted on that levy," Ashley said.

"People work," she said of the lack of a line in the first several hours of voting Wednesday. "I think they'll probably take a half-day off, like during their lunch break or they'll come after work."

Wayne Hoover, 68, of Columbus' South Side, was one of the voters who did show up Wednesday. He said he's typically an early voter. He said he was there to "vote no on Issue 1, and vote all the levies down.

"I can't afford the levies on my property taxes," said Hoover, who added he's staunchly anti-abortion. He also said he was voting against Ginther's reelection.

"I come out here to get rid of that mayor," Hoover said.

Marabella DiBlasi, 67, of North Linden, said she was there to vote "no" on Issue 1, because "women don't have a right to kill their own baby," she said. "That's why I'm here. There's nothing else on there to vote for, (and) because I don't want to be sick on Nov. 7. I don't want the weather to keep me home."

DiBlasi, who arrived shortly before noon, said she was thankful to see the lack of a line, because she has a bad back and didn't want to have to wait.

Scott Shaw, 74, said he showed up to vote "yes" on Issue 1, "because I think a woman's body should be their own body to make decisions." He said he was also angered by the August initiative by Republicans to try to move the goal posts before the November general election with an issue that would have required 60% of voters to put abortion rights in the state Constitution instead of the current 50%-plus 1 vote.

Shaw, a criminal defense attorney from the University District, said he also would oppose the Columbus City Schools levy.

Dennis Damon, 70, a precinct worker from Columbus' West Side near Dublin, also attended training at the elections board and then voted before heading home. Damon said he was surprised by the emptiness of the elections. He speculated that the long lines for early voting in the August special election may have given some pause, leading them to switch to voting by mail or at their precincts on Election Day.

"I've been working elections since the '70s, so I've done this once or twice," Damon said.

Franklin County is set to send out more than 18,300 mail-in absentee ballots requested for the November general election, compared to about 10,200 for the August contest, Sellers said.

Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and about 75 other local Democrats and union leaders took part in an afternoon pro-Issue 1 rally outside the voting center. Ginther said he wasn't concerned by the first day voter turnout.

"No, I think we're going to have record turnout," Ginther said. "I think in August there was probably a lot of anger and frustration. There were folks who wanted to show up on that first day to make that a strong statement."

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Lines from August absent as early voting opens in Franklin County