Nick Castele

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) has scheduled a trip to Cleveland for Saturday as the presidential campaign nears its final week before Election Day.

The Democratic vice presidential candidate pulled out of an earlier Cleveland trip last week after a member of her flight crew and a member of her campaign staff tested positive for the coronavirus.

Harris stepped away from in-person events over the weekend, hitting the campaign trail again Wednesday with a trip through North Carolina.

Several Northeast Ohio boards of elections are expanding their capacity to accept dropped-off absentee ballots amid a surge in early voting.

Local election officials are adding drop boxes and ballot collection points—but they’re doing so only in the immediate vicinity of boards’ headquarters, following an Oct. 5 directive from Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

Sen. Kamala Harris is canceling campaign travel through Sunday after two people involved in her vice presidential campaign tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Democratic running mate had planned a campaign trip to Northeast Ohio on Friday. But Thursday morning, the Biden campaign announced that a flight crew member and Harris’ communications director had tested positive for the coronavirus.

In 2016, Vice President Joe Biden took the stage in a Parma union hall to campaign for Hillary Clinton. He dropped by Rudy’s Strudel and Bakery, known for its pastries and pierogi—the kind of retail politics rarely seen in this year’s pandemic election.

President Barack Obama had won the city twice by double digits. But that November, Donald Trump eked out a less-than-four-point win over Clinton, while falling short of an outright majority.

Updated: 11:50 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections will not collect completed ballots at local libraries this fall, despite a federal judge’s ruling this week that seemed to allow it, a board member told ideastream Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster interpreted a recent state election directive more broadly than Secretary of State Frank LaRose intended, Democratic board member Inajo Davis Chappell said.

Unlike some other states, Ohio will get a head start processing ballots as absentee votes begin streaming into county election boards this month.

Ohio’s voting procedures allow election officials to verify voter identities, open absentee envelopes and scan ballots before Election Day. What staff can’t do before the polls close Nov. 3 is tabulate those votes – that is, produce a readable report of results to date.

Updated: 4:40 p.m., Friday, Oct. 2, 2020

Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday urged Ohioans to wear masks in the wake of news that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.

DeWine called the president’s positive test a reminder to pay attention to the virus, expressing frustration at what he called a “very alarming” number of new COVID-19 cases in the state.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections will be allowed to collect ballots at a second location near the board’s headquarters, as Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose partially lifts a prohibition on plans to expand ballot drop-off locations.  

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is offering some clarity to voters who requested mail-in ballots but now want to vote in person instead.

LaRose’s office issued a directive to local election officials this week with guidance for handling in-person votes from Ohioans who already requested absentee ballots.

The full directive is available on the secretary of state’s website, but here are the basics of what you need to know:

Four years ago, Heather Tuck-Macalla moved back to Bay Village, and although she’s a firm Democrat, she did not put out a yard sign for Hillary Clinton.

“I was afraid of, I don’t know, just ruffling feathers with neighbors,” she said. “And I regret not doing that, because it’s worth ruffling.”

After all, this majority white, economically better off suburb backed George W. Bush twice, narrowly supported John McCain, and gave Mitt Romney a majority. But when the votes were counted in 2016, Clinton came out 10 points ahead of Donald Trump.

Cleveland has passed Detroit to become the mid-to-large-sized city with the highest poverty rate in country, according to new annual U.S. Census Bureau estimates released this week.

Both cities have seen their poverty rates fall over the past few years, but in 2019, Detroit caught up with its smaller Midwest peer. At 30.8 percent, Cleveland’s poverty rate is just 0.2 percentage points higher than the Motor City’s, a difference within 2 percent the margin of error.

Lake County officials hope to boost their area’s U.S. Census response rate as the decennial count enters its final month.

So far, 77 percent of the county’s households have filled out the census online, by phone or by mail. That self-response rate puts Lake County in sixth place in Ohio. Still, officials want to do better.

Updated: 5:05 p.m., Friday, Sept. 4, 2020

Cleveland police have taken three people into custody in connection with the Thursday night fatal shooting of 53-year-old Det. James Skernivitz, city officials said Friday afternoon.

Authorities arrested two juveniles and one adult on unrelated warrants, considering them people of interest in the ongoing investigation, Safety Director Karrie Howard said.

In a separate incident, another police officer, Nicholas Sabo, died by suicide Thursday, officials said.

Updated: 4:52 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020

The coronavirus continues to spread into Ohio’s rural areas, as the state prepares to send out a new round of federal relief to people who have lost jobs during the pandemic, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday in a wide-ranging news conference on COVID-19.