Harrison County sees low turnout in May primary

What a difference a presidential election makes. In May 2024, Harrison County saw 31% turnout, which is not great but still dwarfs the 19% seen in this year’s May 5 primary election. It may be an unfair comparison since 2024 helped decide who would become president, but it does reveal how the public continually judges elections, which has always been the case.

Democrats cast 534 ballots, compared with 1,303 by Republicans, two by nonpartisans and five by Libertarians. County residents cast 1,844 ballots for 19.64% turnout.

Judge T. Shawn Hervey, Common Pleas Court; Clint Barr, auditor; Dustin Corder, commissioner; and Matthew Puskarich, Probate Division judge, all ran unopposed. There were no Democrats in those races.

Hervey received 1,077 votes, Barr had 1,092, Corder received 1,047 and Puskarich had 1,101. It does not mean much considering they were unopposed, but it does show support.

In the Republican race for 7th District Court of Appeals judge, Mark Anthony Hanni defeated David Comstock 738 votes to 432. For Democrats in that same race, Katherine Rudzik was a write-in candidate with seven votes.

Bell Store had submitted for Sunday sales and won with 228 votes, compared with 114 against. For the Union Local School District improvement levy, no votes were cast.

For Republican State Central Committee woman, Carol A. Coleman defeated Khadine Ritter 854 votes to 243. For Democrats, Wenda Sheard was unopposed with 436 votes.

For Democratic State Central Committee man, Eddie Abdalla defeated Taylor Sappington 295 votes to 182. For Republican U.S. representative, 6th District, Michael A. Rulli defeated Julie Kelley 882 votes to 327.

In the Democratic state representative race for the 95th District, Paul Cameron defeated James Antoni Joyce 329 votes to 132. In the Democratic race for U.S. representative, 6th District, Elizabeth Kirtley defeated five other candidates with 143 votes.

One result in particular stood out, though it did not involve Harrison County this time. Frank Hoagland, who served as Ohio senator for the 30th District, which covered the county from 2017 to 2023, ran for the 96th District, which includes Jefferson, Monroe and Belmont counties. He was defeated by Ron Ferguson, who received 63% of the vote.