Election Day is Finally Here!

Well, it has been a long election season. Tomorrow makes the long wait, hard work, and extra stress all worth it though. The American people will elect the 44th President of the United States who will lead this country during a financial crisis, war, and declining international stature. We will also decide on thousands of local elections and ballot issues that will greatly impact our daily lives. No matter the outcomes of these reaces, we can all revel in the notion that despite our many problems, we still have the greatest Democracy in the world and will move in a new direction as a country starting November 5th.

If you have not already voted yet (and have been waiting patiently for Election Day to come) please keep a few things in mind:

1. Make sure you take proper ID to the polls. You can find more information here, but an Ohio driver's license is the best if you have one.
2. You can not be turned away to vote if you are in line by 7:30pm, just don't leave the line!
3. If you run into any problems, call 1-866-our-vote for help.
4. Don't wear any clothes or buttons that support any candidates while voting. You will most likely be asked to cover it up anyways.
5. Take a sample ballot with you so you already know how you are going to vote in each race and you can look up questions ahead of time.
6. Enjoy yourself! This is the most important right we have so take it all in and vote with your heart.

Washington Post Article on Ohio

Check out this article that goes through the latest poll numbers in Ohio.

Article

New Poll on Voters Under 30

USA Today, MTV, and the Gallop polling agency teamed up to conduct a fairly comprehensive poll on voters under 30. The results show a number of very interesting insights. They break down the poll in this article.

The data looks at presidential preference, party affiliation, and issues that younger voters feel strongly about. Similar to the entire electorate, economy is vastly regarded as the number one issue on voter's minds. The poll also finds that an astonishing 73% of those surveyed intent to vote this fall, a very encouraging number.

The poll was conducted September 18-28 and included land lines and cell phones.

Homer Simpson Encounters Voting Problems

This is a leaked video of the Simpsons Halloween Episode. Homer has a little trouble voting when he tries out the electronic voting machine. He also makes mention of Ohio!

VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE TODAY

The voter registration deadline is today. Please make sure you turn in all the forms you collected throughout your voter registration activities, it is the law!

Also, you can mail them in as long as they are postmarked with today's date. This does not mean you can just drop them in a post box, as they may not be picked up until tomorrow. The best way to go is to drop the directly off at the county board of elections or a post office.

Also, it is very helpful to copy forms so you can follow up with potential voters as election day nears.

Good luck!

Social Activist, Author, and Speaker in Ohio

Paul Loeb is currently in Ohio speaking on student political engagement. He is conducing faculty/staff workshops and talking with students about how to encourage political engagement among their peers.

These are his events coming up:

Oct 3 mid afternoon Faculty/staff workshop on Engaging students in the election. At Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, OH. Contact Tiffany Hansbrough at thansbro@bw.edu.

Oct 7 Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education, Dayton OH. (Held at Sinclair Community College) Contact Cindy Thomas at cindy.thomas@soche.org.
Link to information

Oct 8 Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges & Universities, Cincinnati OH. (Held at Northern Kentucky University in Covington) Afternoon faculty/staff workshop on election engagement, evening general talk. Contact Janet Piccirillo at piccirillj1@nku.edu.

Link to information

New Ballot Issue Guide

A new guide is uploaded on the Ohio Campus Compact website explaining the statewide ballot issues on the November ballot. A direct link is here and also linked from Resources Page on OCC's site.

Please post if you have any ideas on how to use this guide on your campus. I think it would be great to have a forum dedicated to explaining and discussing these issues.

Test out sample ballot

There are two ways to see a sample ballot in Ohio:

1. The first way is to see a generic sample ballot from the Ohio Secretary of State's website. The direct link is here which is linked from their About This Election page.
2. The other (and much better way) to see a sample ballot is to go to the website of your county board of elections and see the actually ballot you will be voting on with all of the local issues and candidates on it. One problem is that some counties don't have websites for their board of elections so this method is not possible for everyone. To see a listing a of County boards with links to their websites (if they have one) go to this page and check out your ballot today! http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/elections/boeDirectory.aspx

For example: you can see my local ballot in Franklin County.

Confirm your voter registration information

The Ohio Secretary of State's website allows registered voters to search online for their information. You simply fill in a few lines of information and then you can confirm your registration status and your polling location.

All voters should do this before Election Day to ensure there are no errors that prevent you from voting on election day.

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/voterquery.aspx?page=361

Debating our Destiny

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/debatingourdestiny/index.html

This is an awesome website! Jim Lehrer, of PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer has made a second installment of "Debating our Destiny" which chronicles Presidential Debates from 1976 to 2004. Watch all the videos, they will get you excited about next Friday, September 26, the first Presidential Debate of the current election.