The east/west, rural/urban, Republican/Democratic split of Portage County was far more evident in November’s election results than in those for the propositions voted on last year, according to an analysis of precinct-level voting data.
The strongest divide was in the U.S. presidential election. Voters in Kent and the Village of Hiram voted overwhelmingly for Vice President Kamala Harris, while voters in the county’s eastern townships decisively went for former President Donald Trump. The overall vote was 3.1 percentage points greater for Trump than when he ran in 2020.
Turnout was at 76% of registered voters, similar to 2020’s presidential election, but there were some clear pockets of low turnout.
Kent, not just student-heavy neighborhoods, but also suburban areas in the northeast and southwest of the city, had some of the lowest voter turnout in the county, as did most of the City of Ravenna, the Village of Hiram, and Charlestown’s Precinct B.
The highest turnout in the county was in parts of Franklin, Aurora and Sugar Bush Knolls.
Issue 1, which proposed establishing a citizens’ committee on gerrymandering, was defeated both in the county at the state level. In Portage County, there was strong support in Kent and Franklin Township, but beyond there, support waned, and was the weakest in the east and south, following similar patterns to the presidential race.
The greatest support for Trump came from the southeastern townships: Palmyra, Atwater and Deerfield. The highest support for Harris was in Kent and Franklin Township.
Harris did not fare well in precincts elsewhere, but did win several in Streetsboro and southeastern Ravenna, in addition to the Village of Hiram. While winning most votes in all other precincts, support for Trump was lower in Aurora, Streetsboro and Ravenna, illustrating the strong rural urban divide seen across the country.
Like the rest of the state, support for Senator-elect Bernie Moreno was somewhat lighter than for Trump in Portage County. Despite this, Moreno won the county with 50.1 percent of the vote.
There was an even greater difference between the presidential voting patterns and votes for county sheriff. The race between Jon Barber and Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski was the closest race, with Barber losing by only 1,130 votes, 49.3% to 50.7%.
Despite the sheriff’s vocal support for Trump, Zuchowski is embroiled in numerous controversies that may have led to fewer votes than may have been expected if there were only party-line votes.
A closer look at this gap shows a few factors at play. First, there was a significant gap between the number of votes that went to Trump versus those that went to Zuchowski.
Second, many of these “lost” votes were simply not cast; in most cases, these were voters who chose Trump but did not vote in the sheriff’s race. Barber, on the other hand, had only a few precincts where voters chose Harris but did not vote for sheriff, and most of these were in student-dominated precincts in Kent.
Jennifer Mapes is an associate professor of geography at Kent State.
