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Early Voting Begins in Ohio

The line for early voting outside Cuyahoga County Board of Elections [photo: Annie Wu / ideastream]

Some 60 people stood at the corner of Euclid and East 30 th waiting for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to open its doors this morning.  As 8 am approached, the crowd counted down the final seconds.

Voters streamed inside while the Shaw High School marching band and a contingent of Hillary Clinton supporters cheered across the street. 

Clevelander Donald Bringht, Jr. arrived around 4:30 and was first in line.

"I think this vote, this election is very important," Bringht said. "And I wanna just be out here, be an example to those that may be questioning coming out and voting or maybe be nervous about voting.  It’s very important.  Everybody’s vote counts."

18 year old Jacob Faust had been in line since 6:30.  He celebrated his birthday a few months ago and on Wednesday morning he cast his first general election ballot.  Faust says he doesn’t think St. Ignatius High will fault him for missing a bit of school.

"They push voting.  They want us to vote," said Faust.  "We have voter registration there.  They allow us to register to vote through the school.  That’s actually how I registered."

The line to vote moved fairly quickly, said Cuyahoga County Board of Elections’ Deputy Director Tony Perlatti.

"We have 24 computer terminals here to check people in to get their ballots as well as a little over 80 voting stations for them to come vote," Said Perlatti.  "We are fully staffed.   No one had to wait an extensive period of time to vote.  And everything is running as planned. So, so far so good for day one."

The Board of Elections estimates 50,000 people will cast early votes. This week, the Board will also ship an estimated 180,000 vote-by-mail ballots.  Applications for mail-in ballots can be submitted to the Board until November 5 th.

 

Annie Wu is the deputy editor of digital content for Ideastream Public Media.