COLUMBUS, ZANESVILLE and CAMBRIDGE, Ohio — Two men sat outside the polling location at the Parsons Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library on Tuesday morning, waiting for the doors to open. But they weren’t there to vote. They were there to use the library’s computers.
“Obama’s gonna win,” one man said. “He doesn’t need my little vote to do it.”
The men said President Obama would win Ohio as well, claiming a substantial lead in the polls for months as proof.
While GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has only led the Ohio polls once, the numbers have been consistently close, often a margin of only a few percentage points in October.
Another young man there to use the library said he was not voting because he thinks both candidates are liars. A woman standing nearby chastised him for not voting, saying he wouldn’t have a voice.
“You don’t have a voice even if you do vote,” he shot back before adding that the Electoral College really decides the election.
In Columbus, informal exit polling conducted by Red Alert Politics showed Obama with a substantial lead. One Obama supporter was not surprised by this result. “It’s his neighborhood,” she said with a smile.
Even those voting for Romney were unsure that he could win Ohio. And since Franklin County, where Columbus is located, voted Democrat in the last two presidential elections, it seems the political breakdown of the area has remained much the same during this election.
One elderly woman who was asked how she voted lashed out at Red Alert Politics.
“Honey, it’s not your business,” she shouted. “I’ve had it up to here with everything.”
She went on to reference the YouTube video in which 4-year-old Abigael Evans cries because she is tired of the election.
“Call me Abigael,” the woman said.
In Zanesville, Ohio, about 55 miles east of Columbus, voters were more reluctant to tell Red Alert how they cast their ballots. But among those who did talk to Red Alert Politics this afternoon, the majority had voted for Obama. The city of just more than 25,000 is located in Muskingum County, which went to Republicans in the last two presidential elections.
In Cambridge, Ohio, about 50 miles west of the West Virginia border, voters again heavily favored Obama and told Red Alert Politics Tuesday night they thought he would win the state. While 2004 statistics for Guernsey County, where Cambridge is located, were not readily available, in 2008 the county voted Republican.
While the time Red Alert Politics spent talking to voters was limited and the polling was informal, a shift toward the Democratic Party in two counties that supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008 could be a bad sign for Romney in Ohio — and across the country.
However, if other Obama supporters are as confident in the President’s reelection chances as the two men Red Alert encountered this morning in Columbus and therefore don’t turn out for the President like they did in 2008, Romney could still have a shot at winning Ohio.
