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U.S. Sen. Rob Portman at the Renaissance Center in Columbus, as Republicans and GOP supporters gather for the GOP victory celebration on Nov. 6, 2012, Photo taken by Glenn Hartong.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman will be the featured keynote speaker at the Butler County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday.

Portman, along with Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted will each give a presentation and be available for a private reception at the Republican’s annual dinner and fundraiser.

The event opens with a 6 p.m. social hour at the Oscar Event Center at the Jungle Jim’s Fairfield complex, 5440 Ohio 4. Dinner and the program follow at 7 p.m.

Tickets for the fundraiser are $75 per person or $500 per person for a private reception with Portman and Husted.

For more information or for tickets, call 513-893-5292.

Posted in: Events, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Republican Party, Butler County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner, Butler County Republicans, jon husted, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, Rob Portman, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman

Barry M. Horstman reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court today cleared the way for Ohioans to cast early in-person absentee ballots on the final three days before the Nov. 6 election.

In a major legal victory for President Barack Obama’s campaign, Justice Elena Kagan denied Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s request to overturn or put on hold lower federal court rulings that authorized early voting on the final Saturday through Monday before Election Day.

Shortly after the court ruled, Husted set uniform early voting hours for those days in all 88 counties: 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday and 8 a.m-2 p.m. Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court today sealed a legal victory for President Barack Obama’s campaign in the pivotal state of Ohio, leaving intact a ruling that restored early voting rights for the weekend before the Nov. 6 election.

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Ohio Republicans had sought to cancel early voting that weekend for everyone except members of the military. A U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati blocked the plan last week, saying it probably violated the constitutional rights of non-military voters. In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to that ruling, filed by Ohio’s Republican secretary of state and attorney general.

Democrats and Republicans have jockeyed in Ohio for months over early voting, an option used heavily by blacks, women, the elderly and low-income people, according to the appeals court. A trial judge cited an estimate that 100,000 Ohioans would vote in the three days leading up to Election Day.

No Republican has ever won the White House without capturing Ohio, which controls 18 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: absentee, ballot, Barack Obama, Butler County Board of Elections, Butler County Election 2012, democrat, early voting, election, election 2012, election day, jon husted, Liberty Township election, Mitt Romney, Ohio election 2012, ohio supreme court, presidential, presidential race 2012, presidential race 2012 Ohio, republican, secretary of state, West Chester election

Secretary of State Jon Husted / AP Photo

Paul Kostyu reports:

More than 920,000 absentee ballot applications to vote by mail have been received by county boards of elections statewide, according to Secretary of State Jon Husted.

County boards of elections will begin sending ballots to eligible voters who have requested them Tuesday, 35 days ahead of the Nov. 6 election. Early in-person voting in Ohio begins Tuesday at 8 a.m. in each of Ohio’s 88 counties.

“We are ready,” Husted said at a press conference this afternoon. “Boards of elections are prepared and all voters can have confidence that Ohio will conduct a fair, open and secure general election.”

Still pending in federal court, however, is a case that could change whether polls are open the weekend and Monday before election. Husted wants to close early voting ono those days, but a federal judge ruled a state law prohibiting weekend voting unconstitutional. He ordered Husted to keep the polls open. The state has appealed.

Husted released the following numbers regarding this year’s election:

• 7.8 million Ohioans are currently registered to vote, which is down about 400,000 due to purging of registrations that were either invalid or duplicative or of voters who are deceased;
• 922,199 absentee ballot applications have been received as of Friday, Sept. 28;
• 10,823 military and overseas absentee ballots have been distributed as of Friday;
• Nearly 6.9 million absentee ballot applications were sent out to Ohio voters over the course of two statewide mailings;
• 62,600 voters and counting have updated their address online.

Voters must submit absentee ballot requests to county boards of elections no later than noon on Nov. 3. Forms also can also be downloaded at: www.MyOhioVote.com. Voted ballots must be postmarked by the day before Election Day and received no later than the 10 days after the election; that is by Nov. 16. Absentee ballots also may be delivered in person to boards of elections by the close of the polls on Election Day. They may not be returned at polling locations.

Husted said he expects about a 70 percent turnout of Ohio voters this year, the same as in 2008.

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: absentee ballots, ballot, election, election 2012, jon husted, polls, presidential election, vote

Secretary of state orders extra evening hours, but none on weekends

Barry M. Horstman reports:

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted ordered all county boards of elections on Wednesday to stay open the same hours this fall.

Secretary of State Jon Husted / AP Photo

Husted’s directive ordering all 88 election boards to standardize their schedules after early voting begins Oct. 2 sets up what state officials believe will be Ohio’s first election with uniform statewide hours.

But while Husted’s order mandates limited extra evening voting hours, it will prevent boards from opening on weekends as most did in the 2008 presidential election, when tens of thousands of Ohio voters cast early in-person absentee ballots.

Husted, a Republican, apparently acted to quell a growing national controversy over disparities in voting hours that appeared to give Republicans an edge in November. He had been widely criticized since The Enquirer reported 10 days ago that he had cast tie-breaking votes blocking extra voting hours in major urban areas that traditionally favor Democrats even as GOP-leaning counties extended their hours.

Wednesday’s order will “level the playing field,” Husted said. “I have sought to create an environment where the election can be about candidates and their ideas, not the process for electing them.”

Some top Ohio Democrats quickly denounced the decision move as one that does more to advance the Republicans’ political agenda in the presidential election than to lower voting hurdles.

“Each moment we get closer to Election Day, Republicans find more ways to chip away at the number of days and hours Ohio voters have access to the polls,” said Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern.

Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, dismissed that criticism as a “predictable part … of the political theater Democrats are using to try to excite their base.”

“The secretary acted very boldly here to standardize voting hours across the state, as it should be,” Triantafilou said. “But I’m not surprised it didn’t satisfy the Democrats.”

Before Husted’s announcement created a statewide solution to what previously had been a county-by-county question, the Hamilton County elections board had scheduled today to decide whether to extend local early voting hours this fall. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: election, election day, jon husted, Ohio election 2012, ohio secretary of state, online updates, provisional ballots, registration, tim burke, voting