MasonBuzz.com

Kim Antrican with her husband, Todd, and children Stephanie and Seth outside of their Lebanon home. / The Enquirer/Amanda Davidson

Paul McKibben reports:

Kim Antrican worked 23 hours on Election Day while battling breast cancer. The next day, she had another chemotherapy treatment.

Antrican, director of the Warren County Board of Elections, credits a lot of adrenaline for enabling her to work such a taxing day.

“Every day on the way to work, I would pray ‘God give me strength for today. Give me the strength to get through the day’ because I knew that I had to pull from my strength somewhere,” she said.

Antrican, 44, of Lebanon, underwent a double mastectomy in August after feeling a lump in her chest the previous month. She began chemotherapy on Sept. 25, one week before early voting started.

She worked 74 hours during election week and the week prior to that. She put in a 61-hour week two weeks before Election Day.

With the election behind her, she’s working less (40-hour weeks) and not spending her weekends at the office. She’s married with two teenagers.

(more…)

Posted in: Election, News, Warren County |

Tags: Tags: breast cancer, cancer, director, election, election day, kim antrican, lebanon, warren county board of elections

This is it, folks.

Today’s Election Day and if you haven’t heard by now, Ohioans will be deciding the election.

Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. today.  MasonBuzz has everything you need to know to help you vote — and some fun stuff, too.

• Build your ballot
• Enquirer endorsements

State issues

• Primer: State Issue 1 (Constitution) 
• Primer: State Issue 2 (Redistricting) 
• Ohio Supreme Court 
• Ohio Board of Education

Mason Charter Amendments

• Issue 6 would amend the city’s charter to alter the deadline for nominations of city council members from 75 days before an election to 90 days before an election.  The change would bring the city’s deadline in conformance with the statutory deadline for Ohio.  Statewide election law changes in 2010 directed Ohio election boards to have ballots prepared 45 days prior to an election to accommodate citizens living overseas, including those in the military.
• Issue 7 would combine a property tax levy with an increase in the city’s income tax for nonresidents to support safety services.  The proposed amendmentwould add a 0.12 percent income tax on top of the city’s existing 1 percent income tax, though only for nonresidents.  The amendment includes a limit of 5 mills for the property tax.  Both rates will be adjusted annually, giving City Council the flexibility to set the rate of the proposed levy and the fire income tax.The fire income tax and the existing income tax would cost someone working 40 hours a week at $10 an hour $4.48 a week. That’s 48 cents a week more than what he or she pays now.  The 5-mill levy, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2014, would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about an extra $18 a year if council decided to take the full 5 mills.

Voter Information

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More election news

• Track candidate visits
• Enquirer Reporters: What we saw on the campaign
• Quizzes: Elections | Election movies 
• Tell us: Who are you voting for?  
• Presidential visits to Cincinnati
• Romney’s West Chester rally | Photos
• Obama at UC | Photos

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: ballot, charter amendment, city of mason, election, election day, income tax, issue 6, issue 7, mason, property tax, safety services amendment, voting, voting guide, warren county board of elections

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.

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: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: absentee, ballot, barack obama, democrat, early voting, election, election 2012, election day, jon husted, mitt romney, ohio supreme court, presidential, republican, secretary of state, weekend

Secretary of State Jon Husted / AP Photo

Barry M. Horstman reports:

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Ohioans may cast early in-person absentee ballots during the final three days before the Nov. 6 presidential election.

Husted’s decision leaves a key part of Ohio’s electoral rules in legal limbo less than one month before Election Day. It’s aimed at overturning a ruling last Friday by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals authorizing early voting on the final Saturday through Monday before the election.

“This is an unprecedented intrusion by the federal courts into how states run elections,” Husted said.

Last week, the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit, upholding an earlier decision by U.S. District Judge Peter Economus, said that early voting restrictions would be especially harmful to women, minorities, older voters and those with lower incomes and less education.

Four years ago, turnout in the 2008 presidential election was heavy in the three-day period at issue in the case, particularly among Democrats. In what Democrats’ viewed as a politically motivated move, the Republican-controlled state legislature this year eliminated early voting during that final pre-election weekend, except for military members and Americans overseas.

(more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: early voting, election, election day, jon husted, ohio secretary of state, online updates, provisional ballots, registration, u.s. supreme court, voting

Margaret Schwartz of Mason casts her ballot at the Mason Municipal Center on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. The Enquirer/Rachel Richardson

Barry M. Horstman reports:

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: 6th circuit court of appeals, absentee, ballots, barack obama, cincinnati, democrat, early voting, election day, jon husted, mike dewine, mitt romney, ohio, republican, secretary of state, u.s. district judge peter economus, u.s. supreme court, weekend

Dan Horn reports:

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted backed down under pressure from a federal judge Friday when he rescinded an order preventing early in-person voting during the final three days before Election Day.

Husted’s decision came days after U.S. District Judge Peter Economus ordered him to appear in court to explain why he issued the prohibition to Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections.

Economus last week declared that “the public interest is served” by allowing voters to cast absentee ballots on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before the election.

The judge’s ruling struck down an Ohio law that eliminated early voting for most people. It was a victory for Democrats, who have argued restricted voting hours disproportionately impact poor and minority voters.

Husted, a Republican, said Friday he did not intend to run afoul of the judge’s order when he barred the setting of early voting hours.

“The secretary apologizes to the federal district court for creating that misimpression,” Husted said in a legal brief Friday.

Husted’s spokesman, Matt McClellan, said the secretary gave the order because he planned to set uniform early voting hours for all counties and did not want individual boards of elections to set their own hours before he could act.

“The secretary believed he was taking the initial steps needed to comply,” McClellan said. “Knowing the court’s feeling on the matter, the secretary willingly repealed his directive.”

Husted made clear, however, he will appeal the judge’s decision, creating the potential for a major battle in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati just weeks before Election Day.

President Barack Obama’s campaign filed the lawsuit challenging Ohio’s restrictions on early voting, arguing the law is unconstitutional. Republican legislators approved the law last year and have defended it as both fair and constitutional.

An estimated 93,000 Ohioans voted in person during the final three days before the 2008 presidential election.

The dispute over early voting is part of a broader, national fight between Democrats and Republicans over election rules. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: absentee ballots, early voting, election, election 2012, election day, jon husted, mail, ohio, provisional ballot, secretary of state, vote, voting

Secretary of State Jon Husted / AP Photo

Barry M. Horstman reports:

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, seeking to quell growing national controversy over disparities that appeared to give Republicans a significant edge, today ordered all county boards of elections to use the same early voting hours this fall.

The move also means there will be no early voting on weekends.

Husted, a Republican who had cast four tie-breaking votes blocking extra night and evening voting hours in major urban areas that traditionally favor Democrats even as GOP-leaning counties extended their hours, ordered all 88 county election boards to offer extra weeknight hours in the weeks leading up to Nov. 6.

Under Husted’s order, election boards must remain open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the first three weeks after early voting starts Oct. 2, and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the final two weeks before the election.

Although some boards already had scheduled Saturday voting hours, Husted overruled that move, deciding that no weekend voting hours will be offered throughout Ohio. (A federal lawsuit in which President Barack Obama’s campaign is seeking to restore early voting during the final Saturday, Sunday and Monday before Election Day could change that for at least that one weekend.)

The Enquirer reported today that the counties in which Husted’s tie-breaking votes prevented extra hours gave Obama a nearly 500,000-vote advantage in 2008, while those that expanded hours have Republican nominee John McCain a surplus of roughly 90,000 votes.

Posted in: Election, News |

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

Brandi Powers of Mason casts her ballot in the 2012 Republican primary at the Mason Municipal Center. The Enquirer/Rachel Richardson

Barry M. Horstman reports:

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted Thursday unveiled a new program that will allow registered voters to update their address online, a plan expected to simplify Election Day by substantially reducing the number of troublesome provisional ballots cast.

Hailing it as a step toward making Ohio elections more “accessible, accurate and secure,” Husted said the new method for updating registrations also will cut costs and minimize errors by voters and election officials – mistakes that routinely disqualify tens of thousands of ballots statewide.

“Voters will be very comfortable and frankly have come to expect these kinds of services,” Husted said at a news conference in his office. “But with this convenience, we want to make sure that security is also a priority, and that’s what we’ve done.”

The new online plan – found at www.MyOhioVote.com and on county boards of elections’ websites – comes as The Enquirer conducts an in-depth examination of the state’s electoral procedures, launched last month, focusing in particular on the considerable problems caused by provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are cast when there are questions over a voter’s registration, often after a move.

In the 2008 presidential election, nearly 207,000 provisional ballots were cast statewide, of which about 40,000 were rejected.

Had Husted’s new program – patterned after online plans in 10 other states – been in place in 2008, an estimated 130,000 people who cast provisional ballots instead could have voted a regular ballot, which is much more likely to ultimately be counted.

“There will be more provisional ballots (in November) because it is a presidential election,” Husted said. “But we can reduce that amount if voters take advantage of this tool.”

(more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

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

Traffic in some corners of Warren County and Mason might seem louder than usual Friday.

Supporters of Warren County Issue 12, a renewal of a $1.21 mill levy for the county’s elderly services program, will hold a “honk-in” from noon to 1 p.m. that day at 20 intersections throughout the county.

In Mason, supporters will be at the intersections of Mason-Montgomery and Columbia roads; Mason-Montgomery and Socialville Foster roads; U.S. 42 and Tylersville Road, U.S. 42 and Mason-Montgomery Road; and on U.S. 42 near Houston’s Inn at 4026 U.S. 42.

The levy funds 91 percent of the county’s elderly services program, which assists more than 2,300 seniors a year with services like meals on wheels, housekeeping help, wheelchair ramps and transport assistance, among other services.

If it passes, property taxes would remain the same: It currently costs the owner of a $100,000 $36.14 a year.

For more information, go to www.helpourelderly.com.

Posted in: Events, Political events |

Tags: Tags: ballot, elderly services, election day, help our elderly, issue 12, levy, senior services, voting, warren county