US News

Early split decision in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Voters bucked hour-long lines as they streamed into Franklin County’s early-voting site yesterday — and gave a very mixed picture of where this swing state is swinging.

Abby Benjamin, 22, a political science major at Ohio State University, had the nation’s staggering budget woes on her mind.

“I’m scared about the debt because I know I’m the one who’s going to have to handle it,” she said in the parking lot after voting for Mitt Romney. “We kept digging deeper and deeper, and the stimulus hasn’t worked.”

Nearby, four Democrats in matching blue jackets handed out Democratic sample ballots right outside the polling place.

Cindy Belknap, a volunteer, was the only person handing out Romney literature. She hustled to the location after learning from a Glenn Beck Web site that Democrats were the only people working the site.

“There’s nobody. There’s never been a presence of Republicans at all,” she complained.

Tricia Howard, 19, a college student, said she voted early because she’s got to work at the local supermarket making $8.45 an hour.

Although she said the economy “sucks,” she’s voting for President Obama.

“He hasn’t completely messed up the country, so he deserves the chance to finish it out, and he’s less creepy than Mitt Romney,” Howard said.

Her friend Paige Johnson, another student, added: “Mitt Romney, to me, really feels like a used car salesman who really wants me to buy a lemon.”

Meanwhile, in Lynchburg, Va., Jeff Attix, 71, a retired nuclear power-plant engineer — and John McCain backer four years ago — was voting for Romney.

“He’s going to save our country,” Attix said. “What we got now is a disaster. It’s killing our country.”

Monet Walters, 20, a Bergen County, NJ, resident who attends Liberty University in Lynchburg, voted for Romney by absentee ballot in New Jersey.

“I’m conservative, and I believe in his values,” she said, citing Romney’s support for traditional marriage and pro-life policies.

In Columbus, flight attendant Linda Purnell was conflicted about Obama.

“I give the president props for getting [Osama] bin Laden and getting the troops home, but he really hasn’t done much for jobs and the deficit,” she said.

She voted early because she has to be at work on Election Day at 5 a.m. for her first flight to the East Coast.

But she didn’t cast her ballot for Romney or Obama.

“I just think it’s time for a complete change. Both of the candidates are just horrible,” said Purnell — who opted, instead, for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.

Whitney Ferguson, a stay-at-home mom, brought her 3-year-old to vote early in Columbus — after trying and failing Sunday. She said she waited in line for 90 minutes but still couldn’t vote because of a problem on her driver’s license. She said she’d go to her precinct to cast her ballot for “the one and only” — Obama.

And Nick Baker, 32, a die-hard Romney supporter, refused to vote early in Lynchburg.

“I waited until the day of [the election] because I want to be in all the chaos,” he said.