Pivotal state begins early voting in the US

Ohio voters have started casting ballots in the state that may again determine the US presidency, as Barack Obama struggles to thwart a John McCain victory there four years after it tipped the election to George Bush.

Both candidates visit often while spending millions of dollars flooding TV and radio with advertisements, mailboxes with literature and even voicemail with automated phone calls to get supporters to the polls, particularly during the one-week window in which people can register and vote in one swoop well before next month’s election.

On Monday, the state Supreme Court and two federal judges upheld a ruling by Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner that allows new voters to register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day until October 6. Republicans had opposed the policy, accusing Ms Brunner of trying to benefit Democrats.

Mr Obama’s campaign has long planned for this early voting period and organised car pools from college campuses to early voting sites across the state.

Independent groups seeking to increase poor and minority participation also transported voters from places like homeless shelters, halfway houses and soup kitchens. Such voters have traditionally had a harder time getting registered, and then getting to polling places on election day. Now, until next Tuesday, they can do it all at once.

Early participation appeared light; officials in the state’s largest counties that are home to Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo and Dayton each reported several hundred ballots cast by afternoon. Many of those who voted cited convenience.

“I wanted to avoid the traffic and the people,” said Charlene Glass, 49, of Cleveland Heights, as she voted for Mr Obama at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, where about 230 people had voted by midday yesterday.

In Dayton, Terri Bell, 49, chose Mr McCain because of his experience and his military service. “I have a lot on my plate. I wanted to do this early,” she said.

At one site in Toledo, 15 people were waiting before the doors opened and about 200 had passed through in four hours. Abdulla Abdi, 24, an Ohio State University student, cited convenience in casting his vote early for Mr Obama in Columbus, saying: “I don’t want to have to come back when I’m having exams.

At stake are 20 electoral votes – perhaps, the presidency itself. In all, state-by-state contests will determine which candidate gets the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.

Most recent Ohio polls show a dead heat; others give Mr McCain a slight edge. National surveys show Mr Obama ahead.

The disparity underscores the difficulty Mr Obama is having in closing the deal in this pivotal state. He is a first-term senator from Illinois with a liberal voting record and would be the country’s first black president.

Ohio is crucial to Mr McCain’s electoral strategy. Mr Bush won Ohio, and a loss for Mr McCain there would be very difficult to make up with victories elsewhere given that the political landscape favours Democrats and several other key states are tilting toward Mr Obama.

Mr Obama, however, now leads Mr McCain in enough other states Mr Bush won in 2004 that he could lose Ohio and still capture the 18 electoral votes he would need if he also carries all the states Democrat John Kerry did in 2004. Still, winning Ohio itself could do the trick.

Every factor is at play in Ohio:

:: Can Republican Mr McCain overcome his links to the deeply unpopular Mr Bush and a weakened state party and prevail in a state that suffered large losses of manufacturing jobs and large numbers of Iraq war deaths?;

:: Can Democrat Mr Obama overcome concerns about his voting record and race among the many working-class workers in this culturally conservative, deeply divided state?

Mr Obama got beaten in Ohio by Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. She carried 83 of 88 counties as white working class voters flocked to her economic populist message. Thus, Obama is copying Governor Ted Strickland and Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrats who went into Republican areas and boosted turnout to narrow Republican margins.

“Democrats too often have forgotten about places like this,” said former Mississippi governor Ray Mabus, an Obama supporter who recently met rural voters in London, western Ohio.

“They have forgotten about small-town America, rural America, agricultural America and taken it for granted that we’re going to vote the other way.”