Ohio voters chose candidates for governor, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative and voted yes on a proposal to create a bipartisan public process for drawing congressional districts on Tuesday.
According to the Athens Board of Elections and the office of the Ohio Secretary of State, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray will be their respective party's nominees for the Ohio governor race in November.
U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci was chosen by Republicans to run against incumbent Democratic candidate Sen. Sherrod Brown. Rick Neal of Columbus was chosen by Democrats to run against Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers in a race which will decide who will represent Ohio’s 15th congressional district.
Athens voters approved a carbon fee that is meant to fund solar projects within the city by a margin of 1,410 (76.34 percent) in favor and 437 (23.66 percent) against.
Ohio voters also said yes to a statewide issue which would create a bipartisan process for drawing congressional districts. Athens voters voted in favor of this by a margin of 6,393 (79.74 percent) in favor to 1,624 (20.26) against.
Cordray and his running mate, former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, garnered 58.28 percent of Athens County votes to get his party’s nomination over 5 other democratic candidates. DeWine and his running mate, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, beat Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor and her running mate, Nathan Estruth for the Republican nomination. DeWine got 59.71 percent of the vote in Athens County compared to Taylor, who got 40.29 percent.
In the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator, Mike Gibbons, a Cleveland investment banker got the majority of the votes in Athens County, but according to unofficial results from the website of the Ohio Secretary of State, Renacci has the majority of the votes statewide at over 47 percent.
The same occurred for the democratic nomination for the representative to congress from the 15th district. Rob Jarvis of Nelsonville edged out Neal in Athens County, but Neal was able to get more votes in the district as a whole.
Other offices that were voted on include Ohio state supreme court justice, treasurer, auditor, secretary of state, attorney general, state representative, court of appeals judges, county auditor and county commissioner. Athens County Republicans chose Robert Sprague over Sandra O’Brien to be their nominee for treasurer of state and chose Mike Hess and Jason P. Smith to be their nominees for the court of appeals judges.
Unofficial numbers from the Athens County Board of Elections say that 8,394 ballots were cast, which is just 18.72 percent of registered voters in the county. When comparing voter turnout to the last midterm primary in 2014, it has increased by 6.41 percent. 5,281 Democratic, 2,623 Republican, 15 Green Party and 475 Non Partisan ballots were cast in Athens County.
