Roughly 3.2 million Ohioans had cast a ballot in the presidential primary that clinched the Republican nomination for John McCain and gave Hillary Rodham Clinton a much-needed victory on the Democratic side. Excluding Cuyahoga County and five other counties that could not yet report total turnout results, the statewide turnout rate was 44.9 percent.

Thousands of Ohioans braved heavy rain, flood watches and some winter weather to the north of Columbus to vote in Tuesday's primary election.

The polls opened at 6:30 a.m. with long lines being reported in some places, 10TV's Tino Ramos reported.
Steady streams of voters continued throughout the day despite the forecast.

"Everybody says that the rain definitely keeps people from the polls but hopefully people understand that today is such an important day and that it's an important election and will do everything they can do to get out," said Robyn Harper, a voter.

Dan Mayer said the polls were crowded when he went to vote on Tuesday morning.

"People seem to be enthusiastic and they know how important this is," Mayer said.

In some areas, it took up to 30 minutes to vote, Ramos reported.

Some Ohioans unexpectedly turned into provisional voters on Tuesday when flooding affected voting stations in eight counties, 10TV's Paul Aker reported.

The flooding affected voters in Adams, Athens, Harrison, Hocking, Jefferson, Perry, Pike and Vinton counties.
The closures forced the State of Ohio to seek a judge's approval to reroute voters to other sites, Aker reported.

The move meant that those voters' ballots would be counted as provisional ballots - meaning they could take longer to count.

The eight counties affected by the flooding held only one or two voting precincts each, and a relatively low number of voters.

In Cuyahoga and Sandusky counties, precincts remained open past the 7:30 p.m. close.

The chairman of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections said a federal judge ordered the board to keep 15 precincts in Cleveland open until 9 p.m. Tuesday.

A judge also ordered polls in Sandusky County to remain open until 9 p.m.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner made the request after the county ran out of paper ballots, forcing election workers to turn away 300 to 400 people.

The secretary of state's office earlier said Barack Obama's campaign filed a federal lawsuit to get a voting extension in Franklin and Cuyahoga counties, alleging a shortage of ballots.

Even before polls opened Tuesday, voting had already been under way for more than three weeks. In the first presidential primary election that didn't require voters to give a reason for using absentee ballots, many Ohioans took advantage of the option.

The Franklin County Board of Elections remained open until 9 p.m. Monday to allow early voting but the last voters went through their doors to vote until just after 11 p.m., Townsend reported.

Some voters returned their absentee ballots on Tuesday morning.  Some 80,000 ballots were scanned on Monday night and an additional 10,000 ballots were to be scanned Tuesday afternoon, according to Franklin County Board of Elections spokesman Ben Piscitelli.

Stay with 10TV News and 10TV.com for continuing Campaign 2008 coverage.

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