NW Ohio: Turnout vs Severe Ice Storm

Just as we head into the peak voting hours, NW Ohio is getting lashed by a severe ice storm. It's horrible. The temperature is hovering between 27-29 F. And the ice is just pouring down. Rural roadways are beyond treacherous. I just saw an emergency crew using a Hurst Tool ("jaws of life") to extricate an accident victim at the junction of OH 25 and Bays Road, just north of Cygnet.

In my little precinct in 2006, for the fall general election, we had 328 citizens cast their ballot out of 585 who were registered. During the OH-05 special election back in December, we had 168 ballots out of 600 who were registered.

As of 4:00 PM today, we had about 175 voters.

However, that number includes 44 citizens who were changing party affiliation for today's vote.

In Wood county overall, we had a record number of absentee and early voters and for the first time ever, more Democrats (2,269) than Republicans (1,911.)

Before the ballots can be tallied, the precinct judge from each of these rural polling locations must make their way into Bowling Green with their data cards. I just made that trip in daylight and it took me 55 minutes (and I was driving too fast.) Tonight, in the dark, after the polls close, it could be a challenge to get into BG from some of the outlying rural polling locations in the southern part of the county.

With everything that is going on, I do NOT expect results to be in early.