“The Nation Votes, Ohio Decides” seems to be a common national sentiment (that specific phrase via The Daily Show). Indeed, President Obama released a special political advertisement just for Ohioans asking them to vote, running it for nearly the entire span of the early voting period. The sentiment is relatively absent in Ohio itself, with only a few newspapers attributing victory directly to Ohio. The most blatant about it almost certainly being the Akron Beacon Journal (). Nonetheless, most couch it in the language of swing states, making it an interesting time when newspapers feel neutrality includes having no bias towards their home market. Normally there’s some forgiveness of such things, such as when a newspaper barely conceals glee at a home team victory, but here that seems absent, to my somewhat surprise.

The radio stations and television, at least insofar as I could access them, which was inevitably over the internet, seemed to lack much in the way of local flavor. They reported the election results as they came in, swayed to one side or the other based on their partisan preferences, and had the only concession to their locality in focusing on what this meant for both Ohio and the nation. Even then, aside from a few specific points such as how it would affect a local plant, generally things focused on more general issues like the economy. Indeed, the economy tended to be the general theme of coverage, but that seems to have been true nationally. Whether this is because Ohio is an accurate reflection of the nation or simply because of my own limited knowledge, I cannot say.

Also surprising was that there were numerous and heartfelt calls about the election, the importance of democracy, and getting out to vote. Many newspapers appeared surprisingly civic minded, such as The Plain Dealer turning its into an encouragement to vote. This was, it is worth noting, notable enough to get national attention. Putting aside the front page itself, which is lovely enough to make me like it even as I am consciously aware it is trite. Indeed, perhaps it says something about the relative position of news and politicians in my life that this struck me more than President Obama’s appeal.

There’s also story from Kentucky, which has remained in the top five of its newspaper from the election for a few days now, and is funny in a sad sort of way.

are pictures of a few dozen front pages of newspaper pages from Ohio, which are interesting to examine.