Early voting begins in Ohio

Dayton, Ohio (WDTN) - First Lady Michelle Obama will visit Cincinnati today to stress the importance of early voting.

She's expected to take the stage at the Duke Energy Center around 2:15 this afternoon.

Of the 8.1 million registered voters in Ohio only about 5.6 million of them voted in 2008.

Locally the get out and vote message was highlighted by a group of hardy voters who camped out near the Montgomery County Administration Building in downtown Dayton.

Even this mornings dark, dank conditions could not dampen their spirits saying it's never too early to vote.

They don't want people waiting until the last minute to vote as research shows that in 2008, about 100,000 Ohioans voted during the last weekend before the election.

A new Ohio law would have cut off early voting on the Friday before the election, but a federal judge declared it unconstitutional because some groups such as military personnel were exempted.

The law is under review.

In the meantime Montgomery County Republican chair Rob Scott says their party is not asking people to line up overnight in the rain.

They urge a more practical solution might be using absentee ballot, as about 26,000 of them will be sent out to Montgomery County voters today.

But in Cincinnati today the first lady will probably remind voters about 2008, when then Democratic nominee Barak Obama beat rival John McCain by only 4.6 % of the vote.