{"id":211920,"date":"2026-11-02T21:39:55","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T02:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=211920"},"modified":"2026-11-02T21:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T02:40:26","slug":"state-representative-race-local-issues-on-the-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/11\/02\/state-representative-race-local-issues-on-the-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"State representative race, local issues on the ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"431\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Election-artwork-11-6-12.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31091\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Election Day is upon us and while the ballot is light in terms of local races and issues, interest appears to be higher than expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Statewide, nearly 1.1 milion voters cast ballots during Ohio\u2019s early in-person voting period, while nearly 737,000 requested ballots by mail, with just over 632,000 returned as of noon on Monday. In Van Wert County, 4,585 registered voters took advantage of early in-person voting, while 879 of 1,057 mail-in ballots were returned by noon on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just one local race is on the ballot. Incumbent State Representative Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland) is seeking another term in the 82nd District and has two challengers \u2013 Libertarian Christopher Elder of Paulding and Democrat Maddux McCray of Van Wert. The 82nd District is comprised of all of Van Wert, Paulding and Putnam counties, along with the southern half of Defiance County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Incumbent Republican Van Wert County Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger is running unopposed, as is Van Wert County Juvenile\/Probate Court Judge Eva Yarger, who was appointed to the seat in February, then defeated fellow Republican Todd Wolfrum in the May primary election. Wolfrum is continuing on as a county commissioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>After defeating incumbent Jami Bradford in the May primary election, Arica Wermer is running unopposed for Van Wert County Auditor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After defeating Jim Hoops in the May primary, Craig Reidel (R-Defiance) is running unopposed for the 1st District Ohio Senate seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No mayoral, city or village council, school board or township trustee races are on the ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Statewide races include the governor\u2019s race between Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, Democrat Amy Action and Libertarian Don Kissick. The three are vying to replace current Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who is unable to seek re-election due to term limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The race for U.S. Senate has been a hotly contested one. It features incumbent Republican Jon Husted, who was appointed to the seat in January of last year, and former longtime Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his bid for re-election in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Van Wert County, there are eight local issues on the ballot, none of which are countywide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A 1.2 mill renewal levy for fire protection in the village of Venedocia.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A 1.8 mill renewal levy for fire and EMS services in Jackson Township.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A 1-mill renewal levy for fire and EMS services in Washington Township.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A pair of 2-mill renewal levies in the village of Convoy, both for operating expenses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A 1.4 mill levy in Liberty Township (excluding the village of Ohio City) for fire protection.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A 1-mill renewal levy for current expenses in Union Township.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A 1-mill levy for the Tully-Convoy Park District for current operating expenses and future improvements.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A 2-mill renewal levy for permanent improvements in the Crestview Local Schools district.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The only issue that will be voted on countywide is State Issue 3, a statewide constitutional amendment dealing with voting and photo identification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Election Day is upon us and while the ballot is light in terms of local races and issues, interest appears to be higher than expected. Statewide, nearly 1.1 milion voters cast ballots during Ohio\u2019s early in-person voting period, while nearly 737,000 requested ballots by mail, with just over 632,000 returned as of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-topstory"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-10 00:04:29","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\/211920","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=211920"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211925,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211920\/revisions\/211925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}