Huge crowds at Franklin County’s early voting center this afternoon. For those unfamiliar, Franklin County is Columbus, home to “The” Ohio State University. One of Ohio’s Democratic strongholds. In addition to the very large crowds, there were maybe 15–20 Democratic party workers handing out sample ballots all around the parking lot. I saw only one such Republican, and he looked awfully bored. Maybe the GOP figures Franklin county is a lost cause. The vast majority of people standing in line were holding the Democratic ballot.
A woman outside the polling place was very excitedly claiming we were breaking a turnout record for early voting, though I’m skeptical of how she would know this, and it’s unclear exactly what record was being broken—but it wouldn’t surprise me, as the place was absolutely packed.
The poll workers handled the crowds well. The line, although tremendous, flowed at a steady pace. It took at least 30 minutes, but because everything was moving forward, it didn’t feel like a long wait.
The early voting center is a bit on the outskirts—not an easy trip without a car, and few to none of the people there looked like students. I tend to avoid heavily political discussions in the classroom (I’m a graduate student who teaches at the university), but the subject has come up, and I’ve found a depressing lack of interest in the election amongst my students. I can’t say their level of interest is unusual though, as I think the political activism of students tends to be a bit overhyped. The 1960’s was a long, long time ago.
People have been saying for a couple of weeks now that Ohio has slipped away from us, and that may be true. But I think we have a better chance of taking Ohio than they have of taking Nevada.