COLUMBUS, Ohio — On Monday, the 55th meeting of the Ohio Electoral College cast its votes for president. With the election certified last month, 18 Ohio electors placed their votes for Donald Trump, who won the state by almost the same margin as in 2016.
The Electoral College met at noon in the Ohio Senate chambers. Re-watch it live in the video player below:
For Ohio's election officials this was also a chance to exhale after an election year that started with Ohio having to postpone it's March primary before switching it to an all vote by mail contest in April.
"It's not hyperbole to say that the 2020 presidential election was perhaps the most difficult election ever conducted in the state of Ohio," said Secretary of State Frank LaRose. "Literally every aspect of running an election was made more difficult as a result of the global pandemic."
Lt. Governor Jon Husted, a former Secretary of State himself said what also made it remarkable was that it was done without incident.
“It’s great to see that Ohio is still a state where it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat," Husted said. "And when you consider what happened with the process for counting ballots in other states I hope that many of them will look to our election laws and to how we run elections in Ohio as a template for their reforms.”
Governor Mike DeWine would later add his signature to those of the electors while seated at a desk in the governor's ceremonial office in the statehouse. It was at that desk that legend has it Abraham Lincoln was sitting in February of 1861 with then Ohio Governor WIlliam Dennison when their meeting was interupted. There was word from Washington that Congress had accepted the vote of that year's Electoral College meaning Lincoln officially found out he would be the next president while at the statehouse in Columbus.
According to the Statehouse News Bureau, the electors were selected by the Ohio Republican Party in September. The electors are:
- 1st Congressional district: former Secretary of State and ex-Cincinnati Mayor Ken Blackwell
- 2nd Congressional district: GOP central committee member Bonnie Ward of Waverly
- 3rd Congressional district: Barbara Clark of Columbus
- 4th Congressional district: Allen County Republican Party Chairman Keith Cheney
- 5th Congressional district: Lucas County Republican Party Chairman Mark Wagoner, whose father was the state's first official death from COVID-19 in March
- 6th Congressional district: Columbiana County Republican Party Chairman Dave Johnson
- 7th Congressional district: Former Sen. Joy Padgett of Coshocton
- 8th Congressional district: GOP central committee member Patti Alderson of West Chester
- 9th Congressional district: Former Cleveland police union leader Steve Loomis
- 10th Congressional district: Former Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Rob Scott
- 11th Congressional district: Patricia Weber of Akron
- 12th Congressional district: Trump Ohio adviser Bob Paduchik
- 13th Congressional district: Karen Arshinkoff, widow of Summit County Republican Party Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, who died in 2017
- 14th Congressional district: Trump 2020 campaign finance chair Jim Wert of Cleveland
- 15th Congressional district: Superintendent of the Division of Liquor Control Jim Canepa of Dublin
- 16th Congressional district: Ohio Republican Party chairman Jane Timken
- At-large: Women for Trump co-chair and Miss Ohio 2014 Madison Gesiotto of Stark County
- At-large: Cleveland pastor and CEO National Diversity Coalition for Trump Darrell Scott
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