NOW, AMERICA WAITS
Despite record early voting, long lines of hopeful voters wait at polls
The driver, wearing his red "Make America Great Again" hat, pulled into the church driveway and waited for James Peterson to direct him into the polling place.
Peterson smiled at the man, told him there was parking in back and waved him through.
He and his brother-in-law, James Alfred Young, had been handling the traffic at the busy Smoky Row Brethren Church on the Northwest Side since 5:30 a.m. Tuesday
The two Black men voted weeks ago for Joe Biden, but on this day they were courteous and helpful to everyone, regardless of their preferred candidate.
“Treating each other right is what we all need to do,” said Peterson, 60, who is disabled and lives on the Northeast Side.
After 15 minutes, the man with the MAGA hat left the polling place and proudly announced that he had voted for President Donald Trump.
“He had our economy rolling before this disease hit,
and that wasn't his fault,” said the man, who didn't want to be identified. “I know what a lot of people think about him, but he is my president and I want four more years of him.”
Despite the record number of early voters in Franklin County and across Ohio, lines were long Tuesday morning as the polls opened.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose provided an Election Day update from the atrium of the Ohio Statehouse on Tuesday afternoon, reiterating that the number of early voters smashed the 2016 figure. Before Election Day 2020, 3,411,463 voters in Ohio had already cast a ballot.
Larose said 1,339,764 people voted early in person, compared to 288,865 in the 2016 presidential election.
There were problems early with electronic poll books used to check in voters. The Franklin County Board of Elections was unable to upload all early in-person voting data into its electronic check-in system, so it shifted to paper poll books.
There also was a problem at the Maranatha Baptist Church polling location at 4663 Trabue Rd. on the Far West Side. Poll workers said the key to the voting materials was misplaced when the workers went to open the polls Tuesday morning. A Franklin County Board of Elections worker arrived about 7:20 a.m. with another key.
After that, some of the voting machines were not working properly, poll workers said. Some ended up voting provisionally, said Aaron Sellers, county Board of Elections spokesman.
Voting machines at Thomas Worthington High School were down for about half an hour to start the day because of difficulty logging in, a poll worker said.
And a blown transformer knocked out power to the Linden transit center polling location near Cleveland and East 11th avenues.
No reports of organized intimidation
Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said there have been no reports of organized voter intimidation as voters at many locations waited patiently in line before and after the polls opened.
By mid-morning, some North Side polling places had quieted down after starting the day with lines wrapped around the building.
"It was insane, absolutely crazy when we opened at 6:30," said Cynthia Cox Ubaldo, the manager — "presiding judge" — of the Salem Baptist Church precinct on Sinclair Road. "We had an outrageously high turnout, with people parking in the grass."
Poll workers said the last-minute switch from electronic to paper poll books hampered their ability to process voters in the hours after polls opened.
By 9 a.m., 223 voters had cast ballots at Salem Baptist Church, almost as many as the total number who voted there in 2018, Cox Ubaldo said.
Also adding to the delay, said Cox Ubaldo, were an unusually high number of first-time voters. "They don't know the process," she said.
Kinh Nguyen, who emigrated to the United States from Vietnam in 1975, was one of the first-timers.
"He's concerned about the future of the country," he said through his daughter. "We were a communist country. He understands what socialism is."
At the King Arts Complex on the Near East Side, Tee Davis, 52, said that this election feels different.
"It feels like people care," said Davis, who is Black. "Usually, especially in this area, people just didn't feel like their vote counted. Most of them didn't vote 'til (former President Barack) Obama was running ... because they don't feel their vote matters."
Tuesday marked 20-year-old Braonna Wright's first time voting, also at the King Arts Complex.
Wright said she's hopeful that if he wins, Joe Biden would help the country better address the COVID-19 pandemic and those who are struggling because of it.
"Because there's a lot of people in America living off of nothing," she said.
At Ascension Lutheran Church on Morse Road in the Northland area, about 125 people were waiting in line Tuesday morning.
Rose Porter, who is recovering from knee and foot surgeries, used curbside voting. She was able to cast her ballot without leaving the driver's seat.
She came with her 20-year-old son and 24-year-old daughter.
Despite COVID-19, Porter said she felt more comfortable coming in person to cast her vote.
“(Voting) means everything. The future for the kids is important, and showing them that this is something that you don't take for granted,” she said.
Nearby, at Woodward Park Recreational Center located off of Karl Road, poll workers said there were about 80 people in line as polls opened. But lines began to clear by 8:30 a.m.
"The change over to paper (voter registration poll books), of course, was a disaster for us," said Kip Patterson, voting location manager. "We had to hand update for all the people who voted early."
Election officials estimated that about a third of the precinct's voters cast ballots using a provisional ballot or by absentee ballot.
The line outside the polls at Broad Street United Methodist Church. 501 E. Broad St., stretched to more than 50 before the polls opened at 6:30 a.m.
Yan Qi, 28, a transportation security administration worker at John Glenn Columbus International Airport, said he was voting to re-elect Trump because "he's fighting for the American people."
Voters weigh in on election
Taylor Bednar, 23, said she was worried that it might become violent later Tuesday.
Bednar, who is working on her doctorate in organic chemistry at Ohio State University, said she just hoped that no one is prevented from exercising their right to vote.
At Blackburn Recreation Center on the Near East Side, Amy Dalrymple said she supported Bernie Sanders, but said she now supports Biden.
Dalrymple, 37, said she hoped other Sanders supporters are doing the same.
"I hope we flip everything blue," she said.
In Delaware County, people started lining up in the dark, wearing their masks, from the front of the Press Church in Powell all the way back to the road about an hour before the polling place even opened.
First in line
Terry and Pam Hudson, a retired Republican couple from Powell, were the first in line a little after 5:30 a.m.
They usually get in line early on Election Day, but this year they set their alarm even earlier. They made it clear that Trump was their choice.
“We don't agree with everything he says or does but overall he has done good and protected our country," said Terry Hudson. "The media just doesn't want to tell people that.”
At exactly 6:30 a.m. the polling place greeter welcomed the Hudsons and the others inside.
“We understand that half of the folks coming here are Republicans and the other half are Democrats, but it doesn't matter,” said Keith Shaull. “Our job is to make people comfortable in votingt.”
Dispatch reporters Jim Weiker, Jennifer Smola, Beth Burger, Mark Williams, Holly Zachariah and Randy Ludlow contributed to this story. mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik