{"id":205519,"date":"2026-05-04T23:01:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=205519"},"modified":"2026-05-04T23:01:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:01:04","slug":"polls-to-be-open-until-730-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/05\/04\/polls-to-be-open-until-730-tonight\/","title":{"rendered":"Polls to be open until 7:30 tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Primary Election Day has arrived in Ohio. The polls will be open statewide until 7:30 tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Van Wert County, there are three local Republican races on the ballot, along with some statewide primary races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert County Juvenile\/Probate Court Judge Eva Yarger, who was appointed to the seat earlier this year by Governor Mike DeWine, is seeking to retain the seat. She\u2019s running against County Commissioner Todd Wolfrum. The winner will be unopposed in November.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Incumbent Van Wert County Auditor Jami Bradford is seeking her second term in office and is being challenged by Arica Wermer, deputy auditor for the City of Van Wert. The winner will be unopposed in November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third race features current State Representative Jim Hoops and former State Representative Craig Riedel in the race for the First District Ohio Senate seat. The winner will be unopposed in November. 10 counties comprise the district \u2013 Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert and Williams counties, and the northern portion of Logan County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statewide races on the primary ballot include one for the GOP nod for Governor and Lt. Governor. Heather Mill and Stuart Moats, Casey Putsch and Kimberly C. Georgeton, and Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert A. McColley are the names on the ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the GOP state treasurer\u2019s primary race, Jay Edwards and Kristina D. Roegner are on the ballot and four people are seeking the Republican nomination for Ohio Supreme Court Justice: Andrew King, Jill Lanzinger, Ronald Lewis and Colleen O\u2019Donnell. Marcell Strbich and Robert Sprague are running in the Republican primary for Ohio Secretary of State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Those voting on the Democratic ticket have no local races today, but must decide between two people seeking to appear on the November ballot in the race for Ohio Attorney General: Elliot Forhan and John J. Kulewicz. In the Democratic primary race for Ohio Secretary of State, Bryan Hambley and Allison Russo are listed on the ballot and in the primary race for U.S. Senator, Sherrod Brown and Ron Kincaid are running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just one local issue is on the ballot. It\u2019s in the unincoporated areas of Washington Township, a new five year, 0.2 mill levy for maintenance of King Cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Van Wert County Board of Elections Director Pam Henderson, approximately 2,000 registered voters in the county took advantage of early voting, including 1,808 who cast ballots in person at the Van Wert County Board of Elections Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VW independent<\/em> will publish election results later tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Primary Election Day has arrived in Ohio. The polls will be open statewide until 7:30 tonight. In Van Wert County, there are three local Republican races on the ballot, along with some statewide primary races. Van Wert County Juvenile\/Probate Court Judge Eva Yarger, who was appointed to the seat earlier this year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 08:31:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205519"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205552,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205519\/revisions\/205552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}