Post Election

Kim, you can breathe now. This one is in the books in more ways than one. From what I've been reading in the papers you did good with only a few minor glitches. For the most part it all went smooth. Congratulations to you and your staff.

That's for Wellsville's Kim Meek, Director of the Board of Elections. She got the job at the BOE not too long ago and was recently appointed director. She was a little tense about being able to get it all organized when I talked to her a couple of months ago. I think she did herself proud.

What an election it was. I can't recall seeing this much interest in a Presidential election since JFK back in the early 1960s. Kennedy was the first Catholic elected to the nation's highest office. Doom & gloomers said the USA is going to be run by the Pope.

Now it will go down in history that the 44th President is the first black man to hold that office. Although Obama didn't carry Columbiana County he did win a majority of the popular vote and had a lopsided win with the electoral votes. Someone on here said we elected an unknown. Not any more. The print media is making out like bandits with running additional copies of Wednesday papers for the people that want to save copies of the election results. Saw on the news yesterday that the NY Times ran an extra 200,000 copies.

It was interesting to read about all the first time voters. A lot of them were people who just didn't bother before. When I was at the poll voting I heard one fellow remark to the precinct workers that this was the first time in 20 years that he has voted. Wonder what brought him out this time.

Nationally the Democrats will have the majority in both the House and the Senate. Hopefully that will be helpful in getting the nation's business accomplished. Only time will tell. From I've been reading the economy is going to be the first priority. They are already kicking around another stimulus package. That's not the answer to our economic woes but for the time being just about anything will help.

Getting down to the local level not all my selections won but I can't complain. Penny Traina got a very convincing win and and although he didn't make it John Soldano had a very respectful showing getting nearly 47% of the vote for Sheriff. I was surprised that the Wellsville cemetery levy passed. I'm glad it did but around these parts levies are tough to get approved, especially replacement levies.

I was disappointed that only 68% of registered voters voted. I thought it would be higher with the absentee and early voting options. We even had beautiful weather. Guess some people just don't care.

Now it is all over except for the provisional ballots and some absentees. Obama lost the county by over 3,600 votes. I would love to see the demographics by area on that.

ole nib