LIMA — The sun was barely up over the horizon as a small group gathered at the Lima Democratic campaign headquarters Wednesday, each individual excited to cast his or her ballot on the first day of absentee voting in Ohio.
“It feels fantastic,” Gwen Jones, 72, of Lima, said. “I feel really good getting my vote out of the way. You never know what’s coming down the line, so get your vote in while you can.”
Jones is not the only one taking advantage of absentee voting in Ohio. According to the Secretary of State’s Office, almost 1.1 million Ohioans have requested absentee ballots as of Tuesday, down slightly from the 1.12 million requests at this point in the 2012 election. That number represented a third of all ballots cast in the state during that election. In Allen County, just fewer than 6,000 absentee ballots were requested, while Auglaize and Putnam counties saw 3,349 and 2,703 absentee ballots requested, respectively.
“It has been steady out here today,” Auglaize County Board of Elections Deputy Director Peggy Matheny said. “They’ve been spacing themselves out to where we can get them almost immediately as they come in.”
“We’ve had 60 come in so far,” Putnam County Board of Elections Director Karen Lammers said. “That’s pretty normal for us.”
Wendy Chappell-Dick, 47, of Bluffton, a volunteer in the Hillary Clinton campaign, sees absentee voting as essential to Clinton winning the election next month.
“She’s going to win in Ohio by early voting and by registering new voters, and the goal is to have this election already won by Nov. 8,” she said. “The fact is that people get busy, especially working people, poor people and women. Just having a scheduling option makes it more convenient. But as a volunteer, Election Day is crazy. We have volunteers going to every Democrat to make sure they voted. If you vote early, the Democratic office gets a list of voters, so you’re off our list. We don’t have to run around making sure they voted if we know they already have.”
Not everyone lining up at the Court of Appeals Building was there for Clinton, however. Standing at the front of the line was Jim Libert, 75, of Lima, who voted for Donald Trump.
“This country is in big trouble right now, so if you don’t vote, you don’t have anything to say,” he said. “My opinion is that we’re heading toward socialism, and we need to stand up for what we believe in. Every vote counts.”
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