I'm Radell Lewis, host of Purple Political Breakdown. I dropped a bonus episode today walking through my entire May 5 primary day in real time, from researching the Ohio Secretary of State website to driving to my polling location and casting my ballot. I want to share a few things that hit me hard during the process.
1. Our voting window is structurally designed to suppress turnout.
Polls in Ohio open at 6:30 AM and close at 7:30 PM. That's 13 hours, and most of those hours fall inside a standard 9 to 5 workday. If you work a typical shift, you have a small window before work and maybe two and a half hours after work to vote. People are tired. People are picking up kids. People are commuting. So they skip it. That is not a personal failing. That is a designed outcome.
I think Election Day should be a federal holiday. If we are not going to do that, it should at least be Election Weekend, two or three days. Polls should be open longer, ideally a full 24 hour window with rotating paid poll workers. Mail in voting should be the default option people are nudged toward. And we should at least be having a serious conversation about secure online voting infrastructure.
2. The voter lookup tools work, but they are clunkier than they need to be.
I went to the Ohio Secretary of State site, ran the captcha (which gave me a hard time), pulled my polling location, my district, and my sample ballot. The information is all there. But the user experience screams "we are not optimizing for first time voters." If you have never done it, look up your polling location, pull your sample ballot ahead of time, and research candidates before you walk in. You can use your phone at the polls to look up candidates you don't recognize. Step away from the booth out of courtesy, but it is allowed.
3. My actual ballot, since people asked.
These are my picks for the Democratic primary in my district. Your mileage will vary based on where you are in Ohio:
- Governor: Amy Acton (uncontested)
- Attorney General: John Kulowicz (Elliot Foran's positions read as extreme to me)
- Auditor of State: Annette Blackwell
- Secretary of State: Dr. Bryan Hambley (I had him on the show. He has a strong anti gerrymandering platform. Allison Russo also has a solid track record if you want to weigh that)
- U.S. Senate: Sherrod Brown (best general election odds in my read)
- Ohio 8th Congressional District: I went into voting day not knowing this race well enough, which is on me. I researched Vanessa Enoch on air and only got a partial look at Madaris Grant before I had to head to the polls. Enoch's healthcare platform is what stood out in the time I had: capping out of pocket costs, empowering Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate drug prices, funding community clinics, and investing in preventative care. That is a meaningful policy stack, not just rhetoric. Grant deserves a fuller look than I gave him today, and I'll come back to this race in a future episode. If you live in the 8th and you've researched both, drop your read in the comments.
4. The SAVE Act framing keeps getting muddled.
Showing an ID at the polls is normal in Ohio and most places. I have no problem with it. The SAVE Act is not just "bring your ID." It introduces proof of citizenship requirements that disproportionately strip eligible voters off the rolls, especially women who have changed their names through marriage. Don't let people collapse the two issues.
5. Frank LaRose, your time is up.
That's all I'll say about that.
Bonus episode is live. It walks through the prep, the policy critique, my picks, and the trip to the polls. If voting access is something you care about, this one is for you.
Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/should-election-day-be-a-federal-holiday-my-live/id1626987640?i=1000766283851
What did your ballot look like today? What's your Ohio district? Anyone else feel like the 13 hour window is structurally rigged?
Sources:
- Ohio Secretary of State, Voter Information Lookup and Sample Ballot Tools: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/
- Ohio Secretary of State, Polling Location Finder: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/toolkit/polling-location/
- Ohio Secretary of State, Absentee Voting Information: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/absentee-voting/
- Butler County, Ohio Board of Elections: https://www.butlercountyohio.org/boe/
- Ballotpedia, Ohio Elections 2026: https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_elections,_2026
- Vanessa Enoch for Congress, Policy Platform: https://www.enochforcongress.com/
- Bryan Hambley for Ohio Secretary of State: https://hambleyforohio.com/
- Allison Russo, Ohio House Democratic Leader: https://ohiohouse.gov/members/allison-russo
- Pew Research Center, U.S. Voter Turnout vs. Other Developed Countries: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/01/turnout-in-u-s-has-soared-in-recent-elections-but-by-some-measures-still-trails-that-of-many-other-countries/
- Brennan Center for Justice, SAVE Act Analysis: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/save-act-explained
- League of Women Voters of Ohio, Voter Guide: https://lwvohio.org/