Traffic accident leads to voting snarl
Ohio's primary went smoothly most of the day Tuesday, but a late wrinkle in southwest Ohio caused some last-minute chaos.
A federal judge ordered polls in four southwest Ohio counties to stay open an extra hour because of a major traffic accident on I-275, which shut down the highway and stranded thousands of motorists for much of the early evening. The problem, elections officials say, is that the order came after polls already had closed at 7:30 p.m.
U,S. District Judge Susan Dlott called Secretary of State Jon Husted about her concerns shortly after 7:30 and then issued her written order to keep the polls open at 8:13 p.m., Husted's spokesman said.
"A judicial order ... after the polls closed makes it hard to keep the polls open," said Alex Triantafilou, Hamilton County's GOP chairman and a member of the county's board of elections.
He said poll workers in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren counties found out about the extension from media reports and worked feverishly to accommodate voters who showed up after 7:30 p.m. It's unclear how many polling places didn't get the word, or how many late voters didn't get to cast ballots.
Until the late confusion, few problems were reported and most polling places in Ohio were bustling throughout the day. Voter turnout was up compared to the historically poor showing in the 2012 presidential primary, thanks to the wild GOP race and a Democratic contest that's been more competitive than many expected.
In Hamilton County, where about 230,000 voters cast ballots, the 42 percent turnout was more than double that of the 2012 primary. Republican voters outnumbered Democrats by a 3-2 margin.
Ohio was seen by establishment Republicans as one of their last, best chances to stop the momentum of billionaire Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner who would take a big step toward the nomination with wins in Ohio and Florida. Trump won Florida handily, but the fight with Ohio Gov. John Kasich in his home state's winner-take-all primary was still undecided late Tuesday. A win for Kasich would inject new life into his campaign, while a loss here could knock him out.
When asked why voter turnout was higher this year, Hamilton County GOP Chairman Alex Triantafilou said it's no mystery. "It's the Donald Trump phenomenon," he said. "This much we can say about Donald Trump: He elicits a lot of emotion, both pro and con."
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought a decisive victory over Sen. Bernie Sanders, who stunned her with an upset win in Michigan last week.
Republican voters also voted for a replacement for former House Speaker John Boehner in Ohio's 8th Congressional District. The GOP primary is crucial because Boehner's district, which includes Butler County, is deeply conservative and considered a safe seat for Republicans, which means the primary winner would be the favorite to win the general election this fall.
Election officials had predicted turnout of between 40 percent and 45 percent Tuesday, and that seemed about right by the time polls were closing. The 230,000 votes in Hamilton County far surpassed the 110,000 cast in 2012, which was a less competitive primary. Tuesday's total tracked much closer to the 2008 primary, when turnout was 46 percent.
Triantafilou said interest in the Republican primary appeared to drive much of the turnout. By mid-afternoon, Republican voters outnumbered Democrats 60 percent to 40 percent.
Social media was buzzing all day with election news, speculation and criticism. According to Facebook, Trump has been mentioned, liked, posted about or shared more than any other candidate over the past month. His 1.4 million Facebook mentions in Ohio and 40 million nationwide are more than double that of Clinton, the next closest candidate.
Overall, voting went smoothly throughout most of the day, though voters at a Cleveland polling place got a scare when a man pulled a gun from his backpack after arguing with a fellow poll worker. The man ran away and no one was hurt. He was arrested a short time later.
In Hamilton County, voting went much better than in November, when technology problems caused delays and other issues at several Cincinnati-area polling places.
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The primary was the county's first big test since November's glitch-filled election, which angered voters and poll workers and forced many residents to cast provisional ballots that weren't counted until days after the election.
Elections officials said they received few complaints Tuesday. Polls opened on time and the equipment operated properly.
"Things are going great," Sherry Poland, Hamilton County's director of elections, said Tuesday afternoon.
Secretary of State Jon Husted said more than 417,000 Ohioans already had cast absentee ballots before polls opened Tuesday, about 80,000 more than in the 2012 presidential primary.
To avoid the problems that plagued last November's election, Hamilton County officials ramped up training for the county's 2,500 poll workers and said they worked out the kinks in the new electronic poll books that caused so much confusion last time around.
In November, polling places struggled with routers that interfered with Internet connectivity and a software problem that made it difficult to find thousands of registered voters in the electronic system. About 2,000 voters had to cast provisional ballots because their names didn't show up in the system.
A report on the Nov. 5 election found 84 percent of the county's polling locations experienced problems on Election Day. "The problems experienced by far too many voters are simply unacceptable," the report concluded.
The poll books are back in action Tuesday, but election officials say the technical problems have been fixed.
Poland said new training for poll workers and adding more troubleshooters to help with problems paid off Tuesday.
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