Tomorrow is Voting Day

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THE SCARLET VOTER GUIDE

Tomorrow, Columbus votes. For parks. For potholes. For people who will inevitably tweet “honored to serve.”
Here’s everything you need to know before you get in line behind that one guy who forgot his ID.

WHEN AND WHERE TO VOTE

Election Day: Tuesday, November 4
Hours: 6:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Early voting: Over. You had your chance.

Polling place lookup: vote.franklincountyohio.gov
Bring: A valid photo ID, Ohio driver’s license, state ID, passport, or military ID.
If it’s expired or from Planet Fitness, it doesn’t count.

If you forget your ID, you can still vote provisionally, but you’ll need to show up later with proof you exist.

WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR

• District elections: For the first time in modern history, Columbus voters actually have City Council districts. Candidates have to live near the people they represent. Bold idea.
  

• Stricter ID rules: The days of voting with a utility bill are gone. Bring a government-issued plastic with your face on it.
  

• Property taxes: Expect to see a few “renewals” that feel suspiciously like raises.

WHO CAN VOTE FOR WHAT

• Citywide voters: City Council District 7 and all five Columbus bond issues.
  

• County voters: The Zoo and ADAMH levies.
  

• Township/School voters: Depends on where you live, Blendon, Mifflin, Whitehall, Jonathan Alder, Olentangy, and Westerville all have local measures.
  Check your sample ballot: voteohio.gov

CITY COUNCIL – DISTRICT 7

(Downtown, German Village, Brewery District, Franklinton, Milo Groden, and more)

Tiara Ross

• Assistant City Attorney, Property Action Team.
  

• Priorities: Violence prevention, transparency, and racial and economic equity.
  

• Backed by unions and people who like their city attorneys visible.
  

Jesse Vogel

• Immigration attorney.
  

• Platform: eviction defense, property tax relief, fare-free COTA.
  

• Endorsed by AFSCME and probably your public defender.
  

Summary: Ross is the inside favorite; Vogel’s the reformer with bus fare on his mind.

COLUMBUS SCHOOL BOARD

Six candidates, one very large budget deficit.

Patrick Katzenmeyer, Jermaine Kennedy, Janeece Keyes, Mounir Lynch, Kimberley Mason, Antoinette Miranda

They’ll be deciding on school budgets, staffing cuts, and whether your neighborhood school gets AC before 2030.
Forums have focused on teacher pay, safety, and district transparency.

HOW IT HITS YOUR WALLET

COUNTY AND CITYWIDE ISSUES

ADAMH Levy, Mental Health Renewal and Increase

Keeps crisis hotlines, addiction recovery, and prevention programs funded. Renewal plus a bump to cover rising demand.
Vote YES if you like functioning social services; NO if you believe mental health is a luxury.

Zoo Levy, Renewal

Funds the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium. Keeps animal habitats clean, research funded, and kids distracted.
Costs less than one latte a month.

COLUMBUS BOND ISSUES

The city wants nearly $2 billion in new bonds, borrowed money for public projects.
City Hall promises “no new taxes,” which is technically true; it’s the debt we’ll repay later.

1. Safety, Health & Infrastructure: Police, fire stations, and basic services.
   

2. Recreation & Parks: Playgrounds, trails, and maybe another pickleball court.
   

3. Public Service: Streets, trash, sidewalks, plows.
   

4. Neighborhood Development: Affordable housing and “revitalization” (aka construction).
   

5. Public Utilities: Water, sewer, and the infrastructure no one Instagrams.
   

🏘 LOCAL BALLOT ISSUES

Whitehall: A cluster of referendums on new housing tax breaks. Residents are trying to stop “Fairway Cliffs,” a proposed development with fancy branding and fewer taxes.

Blendon & Mifflin Townships: Police levies to boost staffing and funding.

School Districts:

• Jonathan Alder and Olentangy want bonds for new buildings.
  

• Westerville wants a 0.75% income tax for operating costs.

HOW TO DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR BALLOT

Confirm your registration, polling place, and sample ballot here:
👉 vote.franklincountyohio.gov
👉 voteohio.gov

QUICK PICKS: YOUR 60-SECOND CHEAT SHEET

• City Council: Ross vs. Vogel: lawyer vs. lawyer, insider vs. reformer.
  

• School Board: Six candidates, same old budget crisis.
  

• County Levies: Mental health + zoo = small tax, big impact.
  

• City Bonds: Columbus wants $1.9 billion to fix itself.
  

• Townships/Schools: More cops, newer schools, higher taxes.
  

Voting is Important 

Because Columbus is booming, but growth without governance turns into gridlock.
Because your neighborhood deserves more than “out of service” signs and “underfunded” excuses.
And because if you don’t vote, someone who thinks “Trees are DEI” Probably will.

I hope this helps. 

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: In 2023 (a non-major election year), what percentage of registered voters voted in Franklin County?

A) 33%
B) 78%
C) 49%
D) 56%

SNAP DECISION LEAVES OHIO FAMILIES HUNGRY FOR ANSWERS

For more than 1.5 million Ohioans, the first of the month usually means one thing: the grocery budget reloads. But this month, the checkout line came with confusion instead of relief.

As the federal government stumbled into another funding lapse, two judges, one in Massachusetts, one in Rhode Island, ordered the USDA to use $5 billion in emergency funds to keep SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) alive. That should have kept the money flowing. In practice, Ohio food banks say it’s already too late.

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks estimates a $263 million monthly gap statewide, with the average recipient getting about $190 a month, money that usually lands before the calendar flips. Even if the rulings hold, payments could take 48 to 72 hours to process, creating a dangerous lag for families already living day to day.

The Mid-Ohio Food Collective and pantries across Franklin County have sounded the alarm, warning of “unprecedented need.” Some food banks were forced to close their doors temporarily on November 1 as shelves ran dry and demand spiked. “When benefits are delayed, families lose more than assistance; they lose stability,” said Worthington Resource Pantry Director Nick Linkenhoker.

SNAP serves one in eight Franklin County residents, and every dollar in food stamps is estimated to stretch nearly nine times farther than food pantry meals. Which means when SNAP stumbles, every relief agency buckles.

City and state leaders, including Mayor Ginther, Governor DeWine, and The Columbus Foundation, have rushed emergency funding to local organizations. But as the Trump administration’s shutdown drags on, contingency funds can only cover 60% of national SNAP needs for a single month.

The irony? The program literally designed to prevent hunger, is now waiting in line itself.

HOW TO HELP

Don’t overthink it. Families are waiting, shelves are empty, and the Mid-Ohio Food Collective needs help now.

Every dollar donated turns into five dollars of food, that goes a lot further then you dropping off an old can of green beans.

Give directly at midohiofoodbank.org/donate or find a local pantry at ohiofoodbanks.org.

Football is Life

The Columbus Crew beat that ass!

After dropping Game 1 of the “Hell Is Real” playoff series last week, the Crew came back Saturday at Lower.com Field and lit up the scoreboard like a Sunday sermon, winning 4–0 in front of a delirious home crowd, and, yes, Ted Lasso’s own Danny Rojas was there to witness it. (Football is life, but apparently so is Columbus.)

Max Arfsten opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, breezing past Cincinnati’s defense like they’d just remembered they still live in Ohio’s second-favorite city. Moments later, Cincy’s Yuya Kubo picked up two yellows and a red, gifting Columbus a one-man advantage and an all-access pass to their backline. Dylan Chambost bent in a free kick for the ages to make it 2–0 by halftime.

In the second half, Andres Herrera and Jacen Russell-Rowe added goals three and four, turning “Hell Is Real” into more of a group therapy session for FC Cincinnati. The Crew finished with 19 shots to Cincy’s one, proving that sometimes stats do tell the story.

Game 3 kicks off Nov. 8 in Cincinnati, where the Crew will try to finish the job and punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Cristo Fernandez AKA Danny Rojas, from the just wonderful show Ted Lasso, showed up to cheer on the crew as they put that beat down on Cincinnati

Hemp Updates

In a rare act of bipartisan clarity, the Ohio Senate voted 32–0 to reject the House’s version of Senate Bill 56, a piece of legislation that somehow managed to make everyone mad, weed advocates, hemp sellers, and lawmakers alike.

This was supposed to be the grand “cleanup” bill after voters passed Issue 2 last year, legalizing recreational marijuana with 57% support. Instead, the House rewrote it into something that looked more like a buzzkill than reform.

The bill would’ve capped THC levels in marijuana flower at 35% and extracts at 70%, made out-of-state weed “contraband,” and banned smoking almost anywhere fun. It also tried to regulate hemp by slapping on a 10% sales tax and limiting who could sell THC drinks, 5mg at bars, 10mg in stores.

Supporters called it “safety.” Opponents called it “micromanaging the munchies.”

Even the Senate couldn’t stomach it. Lawmakers said the House version “failed to close the loophole for synthetic THC” and left “too many problems to fix.” Translation: this bill was a contact high of bad drafting.

The ACLU of Ohio didn’t mince words either, calling it “a rebuke of the people and businesses that legalized marijuana in the first place.”

Now, the bill heads back to the drawing board, or, more specifically, to a conference committee where legislators will try to patch it together again. Meanwhile, Governor DeWine’s ban on intoxicating hemp remains blocked in court until December, leaving Ohio’s weed world in limbo.

For now, adult-use marijuana is still legal, hemp drinks are still controversial, and the Ohio Statehouse continues to prove that writing cannabis law is the one thing they can’t do bluntly.

Trivia Answer:

C: 49% in major election years, the average is 70%