Early voting is underway in this year’s May 6 primary election. An odd-year election on the heels of a presidential race doesn’t generate a lot of attention, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t important questions on the ballot. Around Ohio, voters will weigh in on local races for township trustee, city council, and mayor, as well as tax levies and liquor options.
Additionally, voters will decide whether to allow to the state to borrow $2.5 billion to fund public infrastructure.
State Capital Improvement Program
The ballot measure, known as Issue 2, is not controversial. It funds the State Capital Improvement Program which has been around since the 1980s. Money borrowed by the state helps cover municipal projects like roads, bridges, and sewers. The idea goes back before voters every 10 years to renew state authority to issue bonds. Three renewals have been approved.
If voters do so again, the state will borrow money — in this case $2.5 billion — and task the Ohio Public Works Commission with funding local projects. The commission hands out grants and no-interest loans through a competitive process.
The program is popular and bipartisan. Lawmakers from both chambers and both parties drafted the argument in favor of the issue.
“Every Ohio county has benefited from this program,” the group wrote, “which has produced more than 19,000 grants and loans for essential, locally selected projects.”
They added that projects funded through the program create construction work and don’t increase taxes.
In committee testimony, Clermont County Commissioner David Painter explained the funding process “encourages deliberation, compromise, and the development of a regional perspective on infrastructure needs.” He noted his own four-county district received $14 million in the last ten-year funding round.
“Without state support, it would be much more difficult, and sometimes impossible, for local governments to undertake these projects.”
No one spoke against the measure, so the state ballot board had to write the argument against Issue 2.
Nuts and bolts
Early voting is available every weekday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm this week and from 7:30 am to at least 7:30 pm next week as well. Voters who want to cast a ballot early will also be able to do so the following weekend, May 3 and 4.
If you’d rather vote by mail, there’s still time to request a ballot. They must be in by April 29. Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by May 5, and have to be received at the board by May 10.
Looking around the Ohio, several big city mayors are up for reelection this year.
In Cleveland, Mayor Justin Bibb is seeking a second term, but the primary isn’t until September. In Dayton, Mayor Jeffrey Mims, Jr. won’t appear on the primary ballot because he has only one challenger, City Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss. They’ll face off in November.
Cincinnati and Toledo, however, will see the incumbents go before voters in the primary. In both cases, the mayors have drawn multiple challengers in a nonpartisan race. The primary will whittle the field ahead of November’s general election.
Cincinnati’s Aftab Pureval, a Democrat, is running against Cory Bowman and Brian Frank, both Republicans. Bowman is a local pastor and half-brother of Vice President J.D. Vance, and Frank is a Navy vet who spent more than two decades working for Procter & Gamble.
In Toledo, Democrat Wade Kapszukiewicz is running for a third term after the city approved a charter amendment extending mayoral term limits. He’s facing independent candidates Roberto Torres, who served on the staff of two previous mayoral administrations, and Harold Harris, a community activist and Air Force veteran.
Columbus has several people running for school board and a three-way race for a city council seat, but no mayoral election. Incumbent Andrew Ginther’s term runs through 2027.