Summit County's count went smooth tonight .. with 100 percent counted in a reasonable amount of time. I'm so glad I was covering this BOE instead of the Cuyahoga County mess tonight.
Senator Clinton's speech has eaten up much of our planned 11 p.m. newscast. I was able to do one live-shot with news of our school levies. Three levies (Barberton, Coventry, Manchester) passed .. while three others (Nordonia, Stow-Munroe Falls, and Tallmadge) all failed. Summit voters approved Issue 8 (RTA) while Stark voters are shooting down Issue 22 (MRDD).
So it's pretty much a split of a night .. about what I expected.
Moments before Senator John McCain went on the air, his campaign blasted out his speech embargoed until it was read. It was odd to sit here in Akron reading along with the words as he became the official party nominee.
Tomorrow's headlines will center on the Cuyahoga County vote .. and the overall count for the Buckeye State. Of course, who knows where we'll be as far as the Texas vote either. It's 11:30 p.m. and Hillary ended right on time for the Ohio stations to dump out to the late-night shows without leaving time for Barack Obama to say anything of his own. Don't for a minute ever think the candidates aren't watching the clocks and thinking of the local evening news cycle.
Of course, for all the positive energy at the Summit County Board of Elections tonight with a job well done, tomorrow morning .. a mere 9 hours from now .. the Board will look to add a new member Don Varian as a GOP representative. That move was approved after the Supreme Court shot down a challenge by Alex Arshinkoff to stay that decision. The supremes did however order the Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to expedite a hearing for AA to make his case on why Brian Daley (AA's choice) should be the GOP representative instead of Varian (Brunner's choice). I'm not sure if AA will be at the hearing to try and chain himself to a door to stop it, but the way this issue has gone, I'm not sure that anything is out of bounds any more.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Miller and Schurring still dueling for Congressional Primary
It's 10:30 p.m. I've just finished my first liveshot for TV3 ... and the results for Summit and Stark are coming in smoothly. Summit's actually at 78 percent.
What's sticking out to me is the close race between Matt Miller and Kirk Schurring for the GOP nomination in the 16th Congressional District, which is the seat that Ralph Regula is vacating after several decades in Washington. Miller is an Ashland County Commissioner while Schurring, the more well-known name in this area, is a State Senator. This one could keep us guessing until after midnight. The winner will go against State Senator John Boccieri, who won the Dems primary over Canton City Council woman Mary Cirelli.
I'm surprised that Issue 8 is passing in Summit County. I'm not debating the need, but considering county voters approved monies for both CSB and the ADM Board just four months ago, I was surprised another issue asking for money would go through. Still, this is a sale tax increase versus a property tax, but more $$ is still a tough task these days. Certainly those behind the issue did their homework and sold the idea.
Still having plenty of folks calling with trees down and icy roads .. a lot of what we can't cover tonight because of our election coverage.
The Cuyahoga County issues could keep us on the air well past midnight.
Eric
What's sticking out to me is the close race between Matt Miller and Kirk Schurring for the GOP nomination in the 16th Congressional District, which is the seat that Ralph Regula is vacating after several decades in Washington. Miller is an Ashland County Commissioner while Schurring, the more well-known name in this area, is a State Senator. This one could keep us guessing until after midnight. The winner will go against State Senator John Boccieri, who won the Dems primary over Canton City Council woman Mary Cirelli.
I'm surprised that Issue 8 is passing in Summit County. I'm not debating the need, but considering county voters approved monies for both CSB and the ADM Board just four months ago, I was surprised another issue asking for money would go through. Still, this is a sale tax increase versus a property tax, but more $$ is still a tough task these days. Certainly those behind the issue did their homework and sold the idea.
Still having plenty of folks calling with trees down and icy roads .. a lot of what we can't cover tonight because of our election coverage.
The Cuyahoga County issues could keep us on the air well past midnight.
Eric
Summit Results rolling in
Like clockwork, Summit BOE started posted results around 9:09 p.m. and has already updated. You can take a look here for the BOE page or view a complete wrap of Summit County and elsewhere at wkyc.com.
With 29 percent of the vote counted in Summit County, Pry's defeating Finley so far for County Executive ... Issue 8 (RTA) is passing 60-40 ... while school issues in Barberton, Nordonia, Stow and Tallmadge are failing. Coventry and Manchester are passing. Still a lot of votes to count.
Oh .. and by the way, the fire's out on Copley Road. Doesn't sound like there were any injuries. Police tracking the suspect to another location ....
Stay tuned .. Eric
With 29 percent of the vote counted in Summit County, Pry's defeating Finley so far for County Executive ... Issue 8 (RTA) is passing 60-40 ... while school issues in Barberton, Nordonia, Stow and Tallmadge are failing. Coventry and Manchester are passing. Still a lot of votes to count.
Oh .. and by the way, the fire's out on Copley Road. Doesn't sound like there were any injuries. Police tracking the suspect to another location ....
Stay tuned .. Eric
Local polls dealing with serious issues
I'm literally by myself right now in the Akron-Canton newsroom. Our lone evening producer and photographer are bouncing between the Issue 8 gathering and the Summit County Dems party in downtown Akron ... they'll get some reaction on tape that I can use during the 10 p.m. broadcast. I'm monitoring results, answering phones, blogging, and preparing to do cut-ins for WKYC on a moment's notice.
Here's what we're hearing around town ..
More Stark County folks have called me complaining about getting the wrong ballot, usually an Independent ballot when they'd asked for a Democratic ballot.
Several thousand folks remain without power in Stark County, which has affected the polls. One polling place in Atwater Township was using flashlights for the main voting floor while fire fighters used a generator with just enough power for a few touch-screen voting machines.
Lots of trees down around Summit County from the ice storm, but Peggy at the Summit BOE tells me there have been no problems. She also tells me that as of 8:45 p.m., the absentee ballots still had not been completely counted and that not all of the precinct ballots have even been brought back to the Board Offices yet.
With Obama's folks filing suit over the lack of enough ballots in Cuyahoga County and other technical issues in Sandusky, the Secretary of State has mandated that the polls in some places be kept open until at least 9 p.m. and no counties can release results until after then.
If you're watching our coverage on Channel 3, no you're not dreaming. That's really Jim Donovan reading the news and election results. Anchor Tim White lost his voice mid-day because of a cold and couldn't go at 100 percent. Our bosses made the call to the bullpen around 5:30 p.m. JD covers sports for a living, but he also follows politics and local news so he was on his "A game." Knowing Tim, they had to carry him out of there kicking and screaming because Tim loves election night.
OK .. some idiot just used gasoline to set an apartment building on fire on Copley Road ... police and fire fighters are evacuating the building .. and looking for the suspect on foot. This appears to have been a domestic dispute that got out of hand ... just what we need on election night .. breaking news.
It's 9 p.m. ... Texas polls closing ... stay tuned .. Eric
Here's what we're hearing around town ..
More Stark County folks have called me complaining about getting the wrong ballot, usually an Independent ballot when they'd asked for a Democratic ballot.
Several thousand folks remain without power in Stark County, which has affected the polls. One polling place in Atwater Township was using flashlights for the main voting floor while fire fighters used a generator with just enough power for a few touch-screen voting machines.
Lots of trees down around Summit County from the ice storm, but Peggy at the Summit BOE tells me there have been no problems. She also tells me that as of 8:45 p.m., the absentee ballots still had not been completely counted and that not all of the precinct ballots have even been brought back to the Board Offices yet.
With Obama's folks filing suit over the lack of enough ballots in Cuyahoga County and other technical issues in Sandusky, the Secretary of State has mandated that the polls in some places be kept open until at least 9 p.m. and no counties can release results until after then.
If you're watching our coverage on Channel 3, no you're not dreaming. That's really Jim Donovan reading the news and election results. Anchor Tim White lost his voice mid-day because of a cold and couldn't go at 100 percent. Our bosses made the call to the bullpen around 5:30 p.m. JD covers sports for a living, but he also follows politics and local news so he was on his "A game." Knowing Tim, they had to carry him out of there kicking and screaming because Tim loves election night.
OK .. some idiot just used gasoline to set an apartment building on fire on Copley Road ... police and fire fighters are evacuating the building .. and looking for the suspect on foot. This appears to have been a domestic dispute that got out of hand ... just what we need on election night .. breaking news.
It's 9 p.m. ... Texas polls closing ... stay tuned .. Eric
Local voting experiences vary ...
Did your trips to the local polling places go smoothly today? What did you notice? Were any political supporters too close for comfort?
The Secretary of State believes we may top the 4 million mark for voter turnout .. so this will certainly be a day we remember for a while.
Our phones have rung throughout the day with complaints about the process (no one would ever call to say they had a good experience at the polls anyway). One lady just called yelling at me that Kucinich and Edwards still had their names on the ballots. I tried to explain to her that the ballots are printed ahead of time and re-printing at the last minute is costly but she didn't really seem to care that I have no power in that arena.
Anyway, I'd love to hear how your experience went today .. so please share your experiences with a comment below ...
(By the way .. several bloggers including Jill Zimon of Writes Likes She Talks will be blogging from our news at WKYC later this evening. If you're following politics tonight, Jill's blog will be a good one to visit... )
The Secretary of State believes we may top the 4 million mark for voter turnout .. so this will certainly be a day we remember for a while.
Our phones have rung throughout the day with complaints about the process (no one would ever call to say they had a good experience at the polls anyway). One lady just called yelling at me that Kucinich and Edwards still had their names on the ballots. I tried to explain to her that the ballots are printed ahead of time and re-printing at the last minute is costly but she didn't really seem to care that I have no power in that arena.
Anyway, I'd love to hear how your experience went today .. so please share your experiences with a comment below ...
(By the way .. several bloggers including Jill Zimon of Writes Likes She Talks will be blogging from our news at WKYC later this evening. If you're following politics tonight, Jill's blog will be a good one to visit... )
Local voters denied chance to support Hillary?
I love election day ... I just do. I love the feel of the campaign train that's been picking up steam in the distance and now it's finally pulling into the station. The 2000 Presidential snafu into the late-night hours was enough to hook a lot of journalists.A few notes to share from mid-afternoon in the newsroom:
Some voters in Stark County are complaining that they were denied a chance to vote for Hillary Clinton. They told their poll worker that they were Independents, so they were given a ballot with just issues on it. Looks like they filled out that ballot before they complained that they would rather have had one with the Democratic primary contestants so they could vote for Senator Clinton; it's too late at that point. Other Independents are making the same claim. Not sure where the confusion lies because it's obvious there are party primaries today ... but the Independent ballot complaints have happened more than once today.
Speaking of Clinton, a group of her supporters claim they were physically assaulted last night outside Hillary's Akron headquarters. 26-year-old William Bonner allegedly grabbed at the signs and tried to go all Howard Dean on their butts. Police say Bonner also punched a 61-year-old man in the head. Bonner has been charged with assault, carrying a concealed weapon, and a host of other charges. I don't know if Bonner voted absentee, but I doubt anyone was making arrangements at the Summit County lock-up for him to fill in the dots on his ballot today.
The folks in Cuyahoga County are getting a lot of national airtime today as they use a warehouse to tally all of the ballots via 15 vote counting machines. We also got word that some voters feared their votes wouldn't count because they'd torn off their stubs when they shouldn't have. The official word we have in the newsroom is that poll workers were instructed to tell folks to leave the stubs attached, but if they were torn off, the ballots would still be counted.
Still waiting on the Supreme Court to rule on Alex Arshinkoff's request for a stay at the Board of Elections. Don Varian is set to become a board member tomorrow but AA still believes that the party's recommendation of Brian Daley should stand.
Some Stark County voters claim that their ballots said "replacement card" on them. The poll worker reportedly explained these replacements were being used because the original ballots did not pass a 6 a.m. test. We're still checking on that one.
More in a bit .. Eric
Monday, March 3, 2008
Odds and Ends on a Monday
Busy news day as we get ready for election day on Tuesday ... so I'm working on more things at once than I can control. A few notes to pass along.
The local chapter of the Red Cross picked the worst night possible to honor some special people. Their annual "Acts of Courage" Awards are set for Tuesday night at a time when all local media will be chasing political stories and election results. The people the RC honors are all top-notch, but the available news crews to cover the awards will be slim to none.
Speaking of election night, I found out today that I won't be anchoring the 10 p.m. broadcast. Instead, Channel 3 is planning a special election broadcast beginning at 10 p.m. covering all of the local results along with the Presidential primaries. Since we share resources with Channel 3, there's no way to do two newscasts at once tomorrow night. Instead, I will be part of WKYC's broadcast with Akron-Canton area results.
The U of A now has three active web cams trained on the site of the new stadium. Check it out here. It should be a fun way to watch the construction progress as this project gets underway. The first kick-off is scheduled for the 09' season .. or about 18 months from now. Just how fast can we build a stadium anyway?
My apologies to those of you who endured part of my chuckle on the air last week. Not sure how "Cuyahoga" County became "Cuya-hoagie" County ... like it's a new sandwich or something. That's the beauty of live TV: once it's out of your mouth, there's no going back.
Yes .. Betsy Kling is pregnant. She announced it on the air a little over a week ago and is due this summer. A month ago I hinted that I had some exciting personal news but couldn't write about it yet because it wasn't my news to tell the public. I'm very happy for Betsy and her husband, Paul Thomas, who is a fellow reporter with WKYC.
I've been out of the office so much on the Cutts trial that I spent much of the day catching up on the zillion emails sitting here. Some of the notes I received contained great stories, but unfortunately I didn't open them in time because I was away at the courthouse. If you have a story for our Akron newsroom, make sure you copy your email to our assignment desk at akroncantonnews@wkyc.com so that someone other than me also gets it.
I think last week's Prince Harry story showed a positive side of the media that few ever acknowledge. Seems the major news organizations in Great Britain have known for months that the Harry was serving in Afghanistan but agreed not to report it. Some of the major US organizations also knew but were keeping silent. Obviously some Internet group failed to see the same benefit and published the information leading to Harry's return to his homeland. Still, the fact that so many others in the media were willing to put their country and a military unit's safety above their own drive for headlines is admirable .. but then again, who would ever report it?
Email from Jim in Hinckley: "Comet Rd buzzards are back! Flew over our house about 4P." The birds must not have gotten the word about this being a leap year :)
The local chapter of the Red Cross picked the worst night possible to honor some special people. Their annual "Acts of Courage" Awards are set for Tuesday night at a time when all local media will be chasing political stories and election results. The people the RC honors are all top-notch, but the available news crews to cover the awards will be slim to none.
Speaking of election night, I found out today that I won't be anchoring the 10 p.m. broadcast. Instead, Channel 3 is planning a special election broadcast beginning at 10 p.m. covering all of the local results along with the Presidential primaries. Since we share resources with Channel 3, there's no way to do two newscasts at once tomorrow night. Instead, I will be part of WKYC's broadcast with Akron-Canton area results.
The U of A now has three active web cams trained on the site of the new stadium. Check it out here. It should be a fun way to watch the construction progress as this project gets underway. The first kick-off is scheduled for the 09' season .. or about 18 months from now. Just how fast can we build a stadium anyway?
My apologies to those of you who endured part of my chuckle on the air last week. Not sure how "Cuyahoga" County became "Cuya-hoagie" County ... like it's a new sandwich or something. That's the beauty of live TV: once it's out of your mouth, there's no going back.
Yes .. Betsy Kling is pregnant. She announced it on the air a little over a week ago and is due this summer. A month ago I hinted that I had some exciting personal news but couldn't write about it yet because it wasn't my news to tell the public. I'm very happy for Betsy and her husband, Paul Thomas, who is a fellow reporter with WKYC.
I've been out of the office so much on the Cutts trial that I spent much of the day catching up on the zillion emails sitting here. Some of the notes I received contained great stories, but unfortunately I didn't open them in time because I was away at the courthouse. If you have a story for our Akron newsroom, make sure you copy your email to our assignment desk at akroncantonnews@wkyc.com so that someone other than me also gets it.
I think last week's Prince Harry story showed a positive side of the media that few ever acknowledge. Seems the major news organizations in Great Britain have known for months that the Harry was serving in Afghanistan but agreed not to report it. Some of the major US organizations also knew but were keeping silent. Obviously some Internet group failed to see the same benefit and published the information leading to Harry's return to his homeland. Still, the fact that so many others in the media were willing to put their country and a military unit's safety above their own drive for headlines is admirable .. but then again, who would ever report it?
Email from Jim in Hinckley: "Comet Rd buzzards are back! Flew over our house about 4P." The birds must not have gotten the word about this being a leap year :)
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