Some souls got to the polls on Sunday — the lone full weekend of in-person early voting ahead of Tuesday’s election — but turnout was less than overflowing at the Lucas County Early Vote Center near downtown.
The “souls to the polls” drive in Toledo, mirrored after the initiative elsewhere where black church pastors promote voting with efforts like taking congregants directly to the polls, yielded only a handful of voters traveling Sunday on the church buses.
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The Rev. Cedric Brock, president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, along with top officials from the NAACP and the Toledo United Labor Council, announced last week that 10 Toledo churches would take people to vote Sunday, which is the only Sunday allocated for early voting this year in Ohio.
Before voting for himself on Sunday, Mr. Brock, pastor of Mt. Nebo Church, acknowledged that as few as five people used the buses, but stressed that many drove themselves to vote after church services in black neighborhoods, which are considered important voting blocs for Democrats and levies on the ballots as African-Americans vote overwhelmingly in favor of both of those.
Early voting started at 1 p.m. and ran through 5 p.m. Sunday. Fifty people crammed into the county’s early vote center at 1946 N. 13th St. by 1:12 p.m.
Beverly Klem of South Toledo was first in line to vote with dozens of Toledoans behind her when the doors opened.
Getting to the polls on Tuesday to cast an election day ballot would be difficult, Ms. Klem said.
Aaron Murray also of South Toledo went to vote after services at Indiana Avenue Missionary Baptist Church. Like many others Sunday, Mr. Murray said he didn’t want unforeseen circumstances Tuesday to prevent him from voting so he went early.
The ACLU, backed by the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, sued in U.S. District Court in Columbus, arguing that Republicans were aiming to tamp down the black vote, as African-Americans have disproportionately embraced Sunday voting since it was introduced in 2006. The case was turned back in a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which allowed Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to schedule early voting that included two Saturdays and one Sunday in every county, rather than giving counties the power to schedule additional Sundays.
Voters on Sunday were bombarded with campaign literature from local candidates or their volunteers.
At the top of the ballot is the race for governor, in which Republican Gov. John Kasich is seeking a second term. Democratic Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald and Green Party candidate Anita Rios are challenging the incumbent who has had a comfortable lead in polls. Voters will also vote on secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, treasurer, and supreme court.
Two Lucas County administrator offices are on the ballot. Incumbent Auditor Anita Lopez is seeking a third term. Her opponent is one of her own employees, Republican John Navarre. Lucas County commissioner incumbent Carol Contrada is seeking a second term against Republican Kevin Haddad, a Toledo hairdresser and cosmetology instructor at Penta Career Center.
Along with the seven statewide races on the ballot Tuesday, northwest voters will decide many Ohio House and Senate seats.
Residents of all four congressional districts in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan are being asked to re-elect the incumbent or vote for relatively unknown and poorly funded challengers.
In Toledo, Toledo Public Schools is asking voters to approve a five-year, 5.8-mill tax request. If passed, it would raise about $13.3 million a year, costing the owner of a $100,000 home $203 annually. Washington Local Schools also is on the ballot three years after its last levy approval with a 4.9-mill, continuous request that is meant to generate $3.8 million annually. A 7.9-mill continuing levy for operating expenses in the Springfield Local Schools is the largest of several new school taxes on Toledo-area ballots.
The Maumee school district is seeking a 3.9-mill, continuing tax that would cost a $100,000 homeowner $136.50 a year. Oregon schools is seeking a five-year, 5.9-mill emergency levy, meaning that the amount collected, $2,853,950, will stay the same no matter how property valuations change over time; the Rossford school district is seeking a 4.49-mill proposal, and the Perrysburg school system is seeking approval of a 2.94-mill, 28-year bond levy that would replace a 1.85-mill levy that paid for Fort Meigs Elementary School in 2016.
Mr. Brock said the church buses would be rolling today to take anyone who wants to vote to the early vote center. The churches involved in the effort are Mt. Nebo, 831 N. Detroit Ave.; Mt. Pilgrim Baptist, 1401 Hoag St.; Southern Missionary Baptist, 1222 Indiana Ave.; First Church of God, 3016 Collingwood Blvd.; Serenity Church of God in Christ, 1101 Woodstock Ave.; St. Paul Baptist, 1502 N. Detroit; Third Baptist, 402 Pinewood Ave.; Pinewood Tabernacle, 531 Pinewood Ave.; Friendship Baptist, 5301 Nebraska Ave., and Jerusalem Baptist, 445 Dorr St.
Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171 or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.
First Published November 3, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
