WOODSFIELD - Monroe County registered four new voters Tuesday, but apparently none of them were ready to cast their ballots.
Although Tuesday marked the first time voters in the Buckeye State were permitted to register and vote on the same day, Monroe County Board of Elections Chairman Manifred Keylor said none of those who registered in Woodsfield chose to vote at the same time. However, Keylor said 17 who already were registered came to the board office Tuesday to vote.
"I honestly didn't think that many would even vote today," Keylor said late Tuesday. "We've had a little over 1,500 requests for absentees by application, which is good, I think."
Between Monroe and Belmont counties, 40 votes were cast during the initial day of early voting in Ohio for the Nov. 4 general election.
Frankie Lee Carnes, chairwoman of the Belmont County Board of Elections, said 23 people cast early ballots there; however, she was unsure whether any of those voters also registered to vote on Tuesday.
"Some of them had already requested absentee ballots by application, but they wanted to come out and vote anyway," she noted, adding that she is not sure what to expect during the six-day window in which newly registered voters also can cast early ballots. "We were ready for them, and that's what's important."
Election officials in Harrison and Jefferson counties could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.
Ohio has been tagged as the state that may again determine the presidency. Voters across the state started casting ballots Tuesday even as Barack Obama struggles to thwart a John McCain victory in Ohio four years after it tipped the election to President Bush.
At stake: 20 electoral votes - perhaps, the presidency itself.
Both candidates visit the state often while spending millions of dollars flooding TV and radio with advertisements, mailboxes with literature and even voicemail with automated phone calls to get supporters to the polls, particularly during the one-week window in which people can register and vote in one swoop.
Early participation in the state overall appeared light; officials in the state's largest counties that are home to Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo and Dayton each reported several hundred ballots cast by afternoon. Many of those who voted cited convenience.
"I wanted to avoid the traffic and the people," said Charlene Glass, 49, of Cleveland Heights. A first-time voter, she backed Obama and expressed her enthusiasm for a black candidate. In Dayton, Terri Bell, 49, chose McCain because of his experience and his military service. "I have a lot on my plate. I wanted to do this early," she said.
Most recent state polls show a dead heat; others give McCain an edge. National surveys show Obama slightly ahead if not more. The disparity underscores the difficulty Obama is having in closing the deal in this pivotal state. He's a first-term senator from Chicago with a liberal voting record and would be the country's first black president.
In all, 270 electoral votes are needed for victory.
Ohio is crucial to McCain's electoral strategy. Bush narrowly won the state, and a loss for McCain here would be very difficult to make up with victories elsewhere given that the political landscape favors Democrats and several other key states are tilting toward Obama.
Obama, however, now leads McCain in enough other states Bush won in 2004 that he could lose Ohio and still reach the 18 electoral votes he would need if he carries all the states Democrat John Kerry did in 2004. Still, winning Ohio itself could do the trick.
Every factor is at play in Ohio. Thus, every question will be tested.
Among them: Can Republican McCain overcome his links to Bush and a weakened state party and prevail in a state that suffered large losses of manufacturing jobs and large numbers of Iraq war deaths? Can Democrat Obama overcome voter concerns about his voting record and race among the many blue-collar workers in this culturally conservative, deeply divided state?
Obama got shellacked in Ohio by Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary: She carried 83 of 88 counties as white, working-class voters flocked to her economic populist message. Therefore, Obama is copying Gov. Ted Strickland and Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrats who went into Republican areas and boosted turnout to narrow GOP margins.
"Democrats too often have forgotten about places like this," said former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus, an Obama supporter who recently met with some two dozen rural voters in London in western Ohio. "They have forgotten about small-town America, rural America, agricultural America and taken it for granted that we're going to vote the other way."
Linda Ward, a nurse from western Ohio, has tried to persuade others to take a critical look at McCain but hasn't had much luck. "Not my neighbors, not my friends. This area is a very conservative one," she said.
Voters like Diane Ferguson, a nursing home director in southeast Ohio, typify Obama's troubles. She says she likes Obama but isn't sure she can vote for him. She's troubled by his early resistance to wearing a flag pin, his race and a resume that looks thin to her.