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Early voting is underway in Ohio for the November election

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Election Day is four weeks from Tuesday, and across Ohio, early voting brought out people to cast their ballots at their boards of elections on a sunny but chilly October morning.

Poll workers wait for voters in Franklin County, Ohio behind a door that has a voting today sign taped to it
Poll workers wait for voters in Franklin County, Ohio. [Daniel Konik | Statehouse News Bureau]
From the front door to the exit door, northwest Columbus resident Tom Brown said it took him about 20 minutes to vote at the Franklin County Board of Elections.

“It was a pretty seamless process, it was like a well-oiled machine. I said, ‘I think this could be a model for a lot of elections to run,‘” Brown said in an interview. “It’s not rocket science. It’s voting, something we have a right to do.”

Although the historic presidential election is drawing residents to the polls for early voting, down ballot races have some serious pull, too.

This is the first presidential election Levi Fravel, 19, is eligible to vote in—but they said Issue 1 was equally a priority for them. After making the drive with a friend who also attends Wright State University the night before, Fravel voted ‘yes’ on the constitutional amendment that changes the political redistricting process.

“Politicians have a lot of control over how, they decide how the people are grouped, and it should be decided by the people that live there, not the politicians,” Fravel said in an interview.

Voters of all ages, from all over the county that has a population of about 1.3 million people, were at the Franklin County board. Alice Poindexter, from the south Linden neighborhood, said her vote is less for her these days.

“I’m voting for my grandchildren and their children. This means the future of our country and the future for them as well,” Poindexter said in an interview.

The earliest of those there for early voting in Franklin County: a woman who said she got in line at 2:30 a.m., said Aaron Sellers, the board’s spokesperson. With added square footage and more machines since last election, Sellers said the lines inside—and even outside—might move quicker this year.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to vote about 1,000 people an hour, which is certainly an increase from what we’ve been able to do in past years,” Sellers said in an interview.

Early voting runs through Nov. 3 at the state’s 88 county boards of elections.