Region goes to McCain

LIMA - Allen County isn't exactly a presidential bellwether - in 1996, Bob Dole received 10,000 more votes in the county than Bill Clinton - and it wasn't again Tuesday.

In Allen County, 60 percent of voters picked John McCain, compared with 38 percent voting for Barack Obama and 2 percent casting their ballots for others.

Barack Obama, who appeared to win Ohio, didn't need to win in western Ohio, just reduce President Bush's 2-to-1 margins of victory in the region.

He did that in Allen County, at least according to early results. The vote totals for the county included 6,000 absentee ballots, with another 4,500 absentee ballots to be counted and possibly another 2,000 in the mail that could be counted.

While Bush tallied 28,000 votes in 2000 and 32,000 votes in 2004 in Allen County, John McCain received 26,167 votes Tuesday. Obama received 16,575 votes.

Turnout in Allen County was about 63 percent.

In Auglaize County, McCain garnered 70 percent of the vote.

Voters in the region had a variety of reasons for the votes they cast Tuesday. Some did some nose-holding at the ballot box.

John Arnett, 60, a registered Democrat and retired forklift driver, wasn't thrilled with his choices on the ballot.

"But I'm a Democrat so I voted Democrat," Arnett said of Obama. "Hopefully he'll do something. It can't be as bad as Bush. There's no way. Bush has put us in the dumps."

John Zerbe, 29, said he had a tough choice.

"I'm not a big McCain fan, but the conservative side of me on social issues was the determining factor," Zerbe said. "I didn't want to vote for either of them. I like Obama's personality, but just couldn't vote for some of the things he stands for."

Some voters were die-hards.

Diane Dick, 63, of Perry Township, voted for McCain and Sarah Palin, saying a "scary time" in the country now needed experience in the White House.

"I just think he's a national hero. He's given a lot for this country and he'll do what's best for the country because he's always done that," Dick said. "She's awesome too because she's the epitome of what women's libbers started in the '60s and '70s, but they don't like her because she doesn't have their liberal views."

Rosalind Brown, 40, of Lima, a registered Democrat, voted for Obama.

"He's more for the middle class," Brown said. "He'll get us a lot more jobs here."

Hailey Owens, 20, of Lima, voted for Obama in her first presidential election during a break from her job as a waitress at Waffle House. Before the day was over, Owens already had a prediction: "He'll make a great president."