Ohio, hit economically, votes Obama

COLUMBUS -- When an important polling place in Ohio is called the Barack Recreation Center, that's a pretty good omen for a certain presidential candidate named Barack Obama.

On Tuesday, voters in this heavily African-American neighborhood streamed into the Barack building and helped deliver the state to the Democratic candidate. "Who do you think I voted for?" joked Anthony Turner, 20, a student and first-time voter. "As you would expect."

Obama did what John Kerry could not in 2004: win Ohio's 20 electoral votes — and, with them, a major step toward the presidency.

The Barack Recreation Center's name has no connection to the presidential candidate — it was named in 1964 after a former city recreation director who pronounced his name differently, like a military "barrack." But what happened in the precinct was crucial to Obama's victory.

Obama won overwhelmingly in urban areas of Ohio, picked up new support in suburbs and cut slightly into the traditional Republican advantages in small towns and rural areas.

Surveys of voters leaving the polls showed the economy dominated the election in this economically troubled state. Nine out of ten voters said they were worried about the state of the economy in the next year.

"We're losing jobs left and right. I think Obama cares about that," said Rafael Atorino, 54, an electrician who voted for President Bush in 2004.

Many of the hardest hit counties in Ohio — some of which have unemployment rates above 9% — are traditional Republican strongholds. Those areas helped Bush beat Kerry in Ohio by 118,601 votes of 5.6 million cast.

Kerry would have won the presidency if he'd taken Ohio.

"I was devastated when Kerry lost. I thought I'd never volunteer again — then Obama came along," said Keyiana Lee, 22, a cashier, after voting for Obama in Columbus.

McCain and Obama both spent enormous amounts of time and money in Ohio. In a reversal from 2004, the Democrat out-spent and out-organized the Republican. Bush's grass-roots efforts to turn out an unexpectedly higher number of conservatives, especially evangelical Christian voters, was a key to his Ohio victory.