Ohio Starts New Form of Voting

Starting this year in Ohio there is going to be early voting for the 2008 presidential election. The early voting in Ohio was held on September 30th and worked out very well. The people hardly had to wait in line but a couple times to vote which made it easy to go in and get right back out. Richard K. Jones was one of the many local officials who voted early this year. Jones is a Butler County Sheriff.

The Butler County Board of Elections is where the voting has been moved to now. That is located at 1802 Princeton Road, Hamilton. It has become the focal point of political activity. Another issue that has been brought up recently is the new window that allows people to register and vote the same day up until October 6th. By doing this it gives Obama and McCain a chance to bank thousands of first-time voters during that time.

Senator Barack Obama has had presidential campaign vans lined up in Hamilton, Middletown, and Oxford to take voters to the polls. This transportation provided is free and are usually on Wednesday evening and Saturday, when the Board of Elections has extended hours.

Senator John McCain has said to have an aggressive campaign aimed at registration and early voting, but his officials would not give any details away.

Middletown Mayor's Race Heats Up

The most recent addition to the race for Middletown's first directly-elected mayor is well known community activist Merrell Wood, former director of TV Middletown, founder of Middletown Habitat for Humanity, founder of the Sink Or Swim foundation, and chairman of the Middletown Park Board.

Merrell Wood is a familiar face at Middletown City Council meetings, and the same can be said about his peers. Two other mayoral candidates have experience in Middletown's government: Larry Mulligan Jr. is a current member of city council representing the 2nd ward. Another candidate has already served as mayor from 1997 to 2001, and comes with a plethora of other public service experience under his belt as well, Fred Sennet. Other community activists campaigning for the job are frequent city council and school board critics Paul Nagy and Nick Kidd. Both have worked in civilian organizations towards the betterment of the city and have often been vocal about their opinions.

Current vice-mayor Tony Marconi had also pulled petitions to campaign previously, but decided not to run stating that he felt he could better serve the city in his current position. Two other residents, Mike Presta and James Garrett also pulled petitions but did not file them.