COLUMBUS – Ohioans woke up the day after the presidential election, as did many Americans, knowing who won the presidential race in their state but without a President-elect as critical battleground states including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania remained without declared winners.
President Donald Trump has again carried Ohio by a margin of approximately 8 percentage points. The Republican won 3 million votes to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2.6 million, enough to give Trump a 53.4%-45.2% edge. No Republican has reached the White House without carrying Ohio.
View statewide election results
Ohio Secy State Frank LaRose, in an update Tuesday afternoon, said the election was going pretty smoothly in the Buckeye State, with a few exceptions. A problem downloading voter data in Franklin County forced elections officials to paper voter rolls, slowing down the voting process at polling locations. In Miami County, a woman drove her car into a polling place but there were no injuries and the woman got out and cast her ballot.
Turnout in Ohio was a robust 72% as 5.8 million votes were cast with thousands still outstanding. Those mail-in ballots will be counted as long as they were postmarked by Monday or dropped off at boards of elections Tuesday and arrive by Nov. 13.
In Franklin County, 609,000 voters went to the polls, a turnout of 69%.
See unofficial returns from Franklin County.
Ohio has been trending Republican in recent statewide elections.
The state’s congressional map remains unchanged, with all 16 incumbents winning, including central Ohio Republicans Steve Stivers, Troy Balderson and Jim Jordan and democrat Joyce Beatty. Twelve-term Rep. Steve Chabot, from southwest Ohio, beat Democrat Kate Schroder. Republicans have held a 12-4 majority in the state’s U.S. House delegation since a Republican-drawn congressional map went into effect in 2012.
Republicans lawmakers will keep “supermajorities” in the Statehouse, even after a federal bribery scandal involving their former House speaker.
Democrat Jennifer Brunner won one of two Supreme Court positions, narrowing the GOP edge to 4-3.
In Franklin Co, voters ousted long-time prosecutor Ron O’Brien, electing Democrat Gary Tyack by a 53%-47% margin.
Two Columbus ballot issues – allowing the city to begin negotiations with AEP Energy on an opt-out aggregation plan that is supposed to bring more clean energy options to residents and businesses by 2022, and creating a citizen police review board – both passed by wide margins.
A bond issue and tax levy in the Gahanna-Jefferson Public Schools, where teachers went on strike last month, was leading by a mere two votes.
Voters in Ohio made their pick for president while holding negative views about the country’s direction. A survey of the American electorate from The Associated Press found the coronavirus pandemic was top of mind for many voters, with 2 in 5 saying it is the most important issue facing the country today.