COLUMBUS, Ohio — Incumbent candidate Andrew Ginther has declared victory against opponent Joe Motil.
This will be Ginther's third term as Columbus mayor.
A major topic of this year’s race was the crime rate in the city. Columbus saw a record number of homicides in 2021, besting the records set in 2020 and in 2017. For 2021, as of Monday, October 2, Columbus has recorded 120 homicide investigations. 103 of them were the result of gun shots.
During his press conference, Motil called out what he says are unnecessary tax abatement policies in the city. He also said more needs to be done to address the issue of homelessness in the community.
"It's up to me as mayor and I will do this, I will create a housing first initiative, an office of transitional housing that will address these problems and not just turn away from it,” Motil said.
A hot topic in this year's mayoral race
A topic of this year’s race is the crime rate in the city of Columbus. Columbus saw a record number of homicides in 2021, besting the records set in 2020 and in 2017. For 2023, as of Monday, October 2, Columbus has recorded 120 homicide investigations. 103 of them were the result of gun shots.
"We know there are fewer than 500 people in a city of a million who are responsible for 50 percent of the violence,” said Mayor Andrew Ginther.
Motil said the city needs to change course and needs a change.
"We have to make sure the parents of our youth know what kind of services are available to them so we can help get them into these programs. Nobody is advocating that we lock our youth up and throwing away the key,” Motil said.
Motil’s ideas involve more investment from the city into programs through Columbus Public Health and other resources. He said cracking down on guns is part of the solution, but not the entire solution.
“Red flag laws and such. I am in favor of those, but again, that is not the complete answer to that. It always falls back to the underlying issues of social and economic issues of people, our neighborhoods and our families,” Motil said.
Ginther said the city is investing in more training and recruiting for the city’s police force.
"By the end of next year we'll have more police officers on the street than we've ever had in our city in our city's history which is important because we're growing,” said Ginther.
Motil said the city must start going after the non-violent offenders before they become violent.
"We have to start issuing citations or doing something about non-violent offenses that occur in the city because if our youth and others continue to get away with non-violent offenses, that's going to escalate to more criminal offenses,” Motil said.
Both men do agree that part of the solution falls on parents and community members to step up and direct youth away from a life of crime.
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Here’s a look at what to expect on election night:
ELECTION DAY
The statewide election in Ohio will be held on Tuesday. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET.
WHO GETS TO VOTE
All registered voters in Ohio are eligible to vote on the two statewide ballot measures. The deadline to register was Oct. 10. Ohio does not allow Election Day registration.
WHAT DO TURNOUT AND ADVANCE VOTE LOOK LIKE
As of June 16, there were 7.9 million voters registered in Ohio. The state does not register voters by party.
For the Aug. 8 statewide ballot measure, turnout was 39% of registered voters. It was 51% in the 2022 congressional midterm general election.
By the end of October, almost 385,000 voters had cast ballots before Election Day, 61% cast early in person and 39% cast by mail.
In August, 23% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day. In the 2022 general election, it was 35%.
HOW LONG DOES VOTE COUNTING USUALLY TAKE?
In the Aug. 8 ballot measure election, the AP first reported results at 7:35 p.m. ET, or five minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 1:51 a.m. ET with about 99% of total votes counted.