12:30PM: Thanks for joining us. More information and full area results are available here.
12:25PM: According to Secretary of State Jon Husted's office, voter turnout was high for an off year: 46% of eligible voter turnout.
12:20PM: The big news out of Clark County is that Voters Approve the Parks Levy.The parks levies were also big news for Clark County last election when they were defeated.
12:17PM: Voters in Montgomery County chose incumbents for two open seats on the Dayton City Commission. Dean Lovelace and Matt Joseph each earned more than 36% of the vote. First-time candidate Mark Manovich took 15% and William Pace came in fourth with 11%.
Matt Joseph acknowledges that being an incumbent doesn't mean an instant win. More information here.
12:16PM: School levies are a big issue locally. Area districts had good and bad results. Xenia's failed levy means the school district is now in the red. Full results of local levies and races are available on our election page.
Beavercreek schools also saw their levy defeated yesterday.
12:14PM:Issue 3 also won big in Ohio. Full coverage from Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles.
12:10PM: Ellen Belcher, former editor of the editorial page at the Dayton Daily News, says one of the reasons Issue 2 was defeated was that public employees were successful at getting a clear message out to Ohioans, but she says mainly, it's a rejection of Governor Kasich's policies.
"After JobsOhio, this was his signature issue of a very young administration. And he billed this, Senate Bill 5, as the anecdote to not just some the state's financial problems, but also local governments. the people looked at his prescription and said 'we don't think so'," says Belcher.
Governor Kasich doesn't face election until 2014, and Belcher says it too soon to tell what effect this will have on his political future. It may impact the 2012 election. Democrats hope overturning Issue 2 will re-energize the base. But Belcher points to Issue 3- that's the measure on the ballot that allows Ohio to opt out of the federal health care mandate. It also passed an overwhelming majority.
"You can't say that there was an ideological consistency there. If you want to pigeonhole people and say the Democrats came out and voted against Senate Bill 5 and all the Republicans came out and voted for Issue 2, well, something's amiss because the percentages were very similar as how they worked out at the end," says Belcher.
Belcher says one thing is clear from the results of Issue 3-the Obama campaign will have a lot of work to do to explain why the mandate is a good thing in Ohio.
12:08PM: The big news, both last night and today is that Issue 2 Could Play Key Role in 2012 Presidential Elections
12:06PM: Welcome to a special edition of the WYSO Midday News with WYSO News Director Emily McCord and the WYSO News Team.
11:59AM: Good morning (almost afternoon). Juliet Fromholt here, joined by WYSO's Miller Fellow Jennifer Carlson. We'll be live blogging today's election wrap up starting momentarily.
