Early voting begins Tuesday

If Florida’s primary is close, 4 top GOP rivals will vie for Ohio votes.

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By Randy Tucker, Staff Writer Updated 11:50 AM Monday, January 30, 2012

Early voting in Ohio starts Tuesday for the March 6 election that will likely be dominated by the Republican presidential campaign.

If Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary in Florida shows a tight race, the four remaining candidates — Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul — could continue on until Super Tuesday when Ohio and 11 other states hold elections.

The only other competitive races on Ohio’s statewide ballot in March are for the GOP’s U.S. Senate nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in the fall and two Democrats running for Supreme Court.

There are also congressional, state legislative and county office primaries in the March election. School districts, including Beavercreek, Fairborn, Kettering, Mad River and Oakwood have levies on the ballot.

With no decisive Republican front-runner and uncertainty about which candidates might drop out of the GOP race, many voters may stay on the sidelines during Ohio’s monthlong early voting period.

“I like to vote early and be done with it. But I’m for (Newt) Gingrich. And the way (the media) is after him, I’m not sure if he can handle it,’’ said Ernie Lubke of Beavercreek.

The 72-year-old Lubke, who was waiting for his wife, Emily, outside the Beavercreek Senior Center on Saturday, is typical of many early voters.

Generally, early voters say they would rather not deal with the crowds on Election Day or might have trouble getting to their local polling place on Election Day because of their work schedules or lack of transportation, said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron.

Like Lubke, early voters also tend “to be people whose minds are firmly made up, whatever side they’re on or whatever candidate they’re for,’’ Green said. “If the race is fluid and there’s uncertainty, people may end up casting a ballot that they regret. So I don’t think we’ll see a lot of early voting in the presidential primary.’’

Some local election officials also say that the March election just kind of snuck up on voters.

“I’m not sure that it has registered with people yet that the primary is just around the corner,’’ said Keir Holeman, Warren County Board of Elections director. “I don’t know how many requests (for absentee ballots) we’ve had ... but I don’t think we’ve had a huge spike at this point.’’

In addition, Green said, there has been little effort by Republican presidential candidates to get out the early vote in Ohio.

“Candidates will spend money early to get their core candidates to vote, but that’s not happening right now in Ohio because Gov. Romney, Speaker Gingrich and all the other candidates are focused on other states,’’ said Green, referring to upcoming primaries in at least a half-dozen states before Super Tuesday.

“Generally, the campaigns would have already been here, but they won’t be in Ohio for at least a couple of weeks now,’’ he said.

More states vote on March 6 than any other of the election season. The states joining Ohio on Super Tuesday are Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

Montgomery County GOP Chairman Greg Gantt said one reason for the apparent lack of enthusiasm among early voters in Ohio is the state’s place on the primary calendar. “I go back at least through the last four presidential elections ... and it (the GOP primary) historically has been over by the time it gets to Ohio,’’ he said.

He noted the early Republican front-runner in the this year’s race, Romney, dropped out of the 2008 presidential race just before it came to Ohio.

“We never got a chance to see how strong or weak he is in Ohio,’’ Gantt said. “But that’s just a historic thing that’s built into the primaries.’’

Early voting can have a significant impact on election outcomes as it did in 2008 when a large turnout of early voters in the general election were credited with lifting President Obama to his win over John McCain.

And many observers still expect a large turnout of early voters this fall.

“Everybody’s looking at a real close election this year, so everybody wants to have as advantageous a situation as possible.

And early voting really does change the dynamic of the campaign,’’ the Bliss Institute’s Green said.

Candidates who secure the most early votes generally have an advantage because they don’t need to reach as many voters later, Bliss said.

Beginning Tuesday, Ohioans can vote early at their county board of elections office.

Voters can also vote by mail and obtain an absentee ballot request from the board of elections or online at the Secretary of State’s website at www.sos.state.oh.us .

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