Swing-state syndrome

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio matters.

In the last several months, the state and its electoral votes have been hotly contested real estate.

According to the Washington Post, President Barack Obama made 11 campaign stops in Ohio in the last 30 days alone. Mitt Romney made 23.

Columbus, Ohio, is ground zero.

Monday night, hours before the polls opened, Obama sponsored a rally at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus with musical supporters Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z.
 
In the same city, on the same night, Mitt Romney addressed supporters at Landmark Aviation.

“Ohio is very critical,” Romney spokesman Robert Reid said Tuesday morning. “It’s gonna be a big state tonight, but we’re very confident about our chances here.” Reid stood inside the campaign’s Ohio State Headquarters on Dublin Road in Columbus.

Volunteers and campaign staff were up and at it early for Election Day. Strategy in the very last hours meant knocking on doors, making phone calls, driving voters to the polls and processing complex exit poll data.

The headquarters were a hub, and they’d take anyone who wanted to help.

The building’s walls were covered in Romney signs, hand-painted or official, making the shape of O-H-I-O or just an O-H.

Glenn Thomas was on his way to the airport. The Frisco, Texas, native traveled to Ohio last Thursday with a group of 100 volunteers, convinced his efforts here would matter more than those he made back home.

“It’s the battleground,” Thomas said.

Volunteers from the same group, hundreds more, they said, headed to other key swing states.

“I can talk to people in Texas all I want, and the reality in Texas is that they’ll vote the way they vote,” Thomas said. “Here in Ohio, there’s an opportunity to either influence or to motivate people to get out the vote.” 

Franklin County, just one county in the state capital of Columbus, is a strategic hub for a reason.

“Franklin’s going to be very tight, so you know we want to make sure we identify a lot of those undecided if people are still undecided today, identify those folks and make sure they understand Governor Romney’s message and that they have all the information they need to make an informed decision,” Reid said. 

Thomas said some voters are weary. When he approaches their doors — a key strategy, since some have taken to avoiding the phones — he jokes about it, telling them he knows he’s one of the many campaigners they’ve seen this season.

Reid said volunteers, on the other hand, were energized.

Inside headquarters, the pace was frenetic as people learned the phone systems or dashed by handfuls of doughnut holes or large Starbucks cups.

Thomas said he’s averaged four hours of sleep each night in Ohio.

The front desk director’s space included packets of Alka-Seltzer, Airborne and Hall’s cough drop wrappers.

The cold hit the director Monday. Months of campaigning were taking their toll.

It all came down to this.

“We’ll see how it comes out today, but we’re very confident,” Reid said. “We think that we’re on path to deliver 18 electoral votes.”