High city turnout could be good for RON

It was apparent early Tuesday night that the Cincinnati mayor's race had inflated turnout in city precincts, while turnout in suburban Hamilton County precincts was more ho-hum.

And the fact that same thing was happening in four other Ohio cities was giving supporters of the Reform Ohio Now electoral reform ballot issues reason to believe they could pull it off

For example: By 4 p.m. Tuesday, turnout in Clifton's 15-K, was nearly 43 percent. In Anderson Township's Precinct T, turnout was only 22 percent at the same time of day.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the more liberal voters who would support election reform live in Clifton while more conservative voters who would oppose it live in places like Anderson Township.

"It was a deliberate strategy, putting this issue on the ballot at an election where there were mayoral elections in five major cities around the state,'' said David Little, the southwest Ohio coordinator for Reform Ohio Now. "This was no accident.''

The idea, Little said, was to maximize the vote in the more Democratic cities and hope that township trustee races and village council elections would not be enough to bring out the Republican suburban base.

"We knew what we were doing,'' Little said.

-- Howard Wilkinson