Half of Franklin County Voters Cast Ballots by 5 p.m.

Poll worker Carl Allen was taping arrows to the floor of the Columbus Library's Martin Luther King Jr. branch early Tuesday morning, directing a line of voters that wound through the small room. "Last year we didn't have a problem with having people wait. This year we had long lines. So we need to make some more adjustments, get a traffic flow going," Allen said.

Voters at the branch were through the line and casting ballots in about 20 minutes around 8 a.m. The polling place had merged with another location this year, and Allen said turnout looked more than double last year's. He expected to stay busy all day.

Polling sites across Franklin County drew heavy traffic all day. By 5 p.m., half of the county's registered voters had cast ballots.

Many voted with their party. "I'm strictly Republican," John Chambers said after voting at Blackburn Community Center. Chambers said he did not especially like Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy but voted for him anyway. "I don't like any of them. I'm being honest with you. I just voted Republican," he said. Chambers said he "loves Trump" and that the president's endorsements of Ramaswamy and Sen. Jon Husted mattered to him.

At a busy polling site in Hilliard, Megan Combs said she voted the other way. "I'm very interested in the governor's race, specifically for sure making sure that we are turning Ohio blue this year," Combs said. She voted for Amy Acton for governor and former senator Sherrod Brown for Senate, both Democrats.

Gabrielle Fields of south Columbus also voted for Acton, though she said no race excited her. "I am voting on behalf of those who cannot. I'm voting for our children. I voted because of those that died for me to vote," Fields said.

Hilliard resident Ray Conley said he just wanted the election over with so the ads would stop. One of those ads was Ramaswamy's TV spot featuring Donna Arthur, Acton's estranged mother, who calls her a liar and urges Ohioans not to vote for her. Acton has said she last saw her mother in court when she was 12. Ramaswamy took credit for the ad. "It was bad," Conley said. "It made me think differently about him." Combs, who had already chosen Acton, called the ad "disgusting."

Columbus voters also decided two ballot issues that would change how city council members are elected. Issue 8 would make the city's nine council seats a true ward system, with district representatives chosen only by voters in that district; council members now represent districts but are elected city-wide. Issue 9 would move current seats to district voting while adding four at-large seats and setting a date to redraw district maps.

Francine Williams of the Driving Park neighborhood voted no on Issue 9, saying it would undo Issue 8 by adding city-wide seats. "I think we need more representation in our neighborhoods more so than electing people at large and they just vote on the whole city," Williams said. Lea Dooley of the Near East Side voted yes on both. "I know that it'll be a little bit more expensive adding seats, but it will level the playing field and make it more that local politics is local," Dooley said.