How Lorain County voted on hotel tax and Senate race

Precinct-level vote totals in Lorain County showed how Lorain County Republicans split when it came to casting their votes for a nominee for U.S. senator, and how voters as a whole voted to reject a proposed hotel bed tax increase. A review of the unofficial precinct-level totals showed the proposed excise tax on hotel beds issue failed to gain enough support in a bid to finance a planned convention center in Elyria. Issue 7 The lone countywide issue before voters was Issue 7, a 3 percent hotel lodging excise tax to benefit the county's plan for a convention center at Midway Mall. More than 25,000 voters said no to Issue 7. Just over 18,800 voters said yes to the tax at the polls. The same issue was rejected by voters in the November election with 27,716 votes against it to 14,147 votes for it, according to complete and official Lorain County Board of Elections results. If passed, the tax paid by those staying in Lorain County hotel rooms would have benefited the county's multimillion-dollar plan to build a convention center to attract trade shows, business and visitors. Township and village voters widely rejected the proposed tax nearly 2 to 1, with 7,596 votes against it to 4,011 votes for it, according to the unofficial results from the Lorain County Board of Elections. There also was significant opposition in the cities, most notably in Elyria, where voters rejected the increase by a vote of 3,188 against it to 2,272 for it. Lorainites likewise weren't convinced, voting 3,102 to 2,431 to reject the proposed tax. North Ridgeville, which had a school levy on the ballot that voters defeated, also defeated the excise tax by 3,770 votes to 3,212 votes. Amherst voters also rejected it (1,510 to 1,230), as did Sheffield Lake voters (618 to 442), and Vermilion voters (549 to 418). In cities where voters approved of the plan, they did so narrowly. Avon voters supported the excise tax, 1,961 votes for to 1,946 against. Those same voters defeated a city income tax increase that would have been used to purchase residential land for use as parks by more than 500 votes. Avon Lake voters favored the excise tax increase by 2,148 votes for to 2,108 against. Oberlin voters also narrowly approved the increase, 678 to 642. U.S. Senate Ohio Republicans cast just over 1 million votes in the primary, choosing author JD Vance as their nominee to replace Cincinnati Republican Rob Portman, who is retiring. Vance received approximately 341,000 votes or about 32 percent of the vote Tuesday, according to complete but unofficial numbers from the Ohio Secretary of State's Office. With an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, whom he had previously sharply criticized, Vance defeated challengers including former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, State Sen. Matt Dolan, businessman Mike Gibbons, former Ohio GOP Chairwoman Jane Timken and businessmen Mark Pukita and Neil Patel. Vance took Lorain County with 7,641 of the votes cast, or 30 percent. Dolan came in second with 6,903 votes, or slightly more than 27 percent, just ahead of Mandel, who came in third with 6,318 votes, or just under 25 percent, according to a precinct canvass report. Gibbons finished fourth in the county with 2,868 votes (11.3 percent), and despite Portman's endorsement, Timken was fifth after receiving just 1,059 votes (4.2 percent) in Lorain County. Pukita polled sixth with 399 votes (1.6 percent), and Patel was seventh and last with 151 votes (0.6 percent), according to unofficial results from the Lorain County Board of Elections. Vance won in Amherst, Elyria, Lorain, Sheffield Lake and Vermilion and was the cumulative winner in Lorain County's villages and townships — where fully one-third of his countywide vote total came from. Dolan won Avon, Avon Lake and North Ridgeville. He also won Oberlin with just 95 votes — the same total number received by his six fellow candidates combined. Mandel came in second or third in every city, and second behind Vance in the townships and villages. Vance will now face Democratic U.S. Rep Tim Ryan of Niles in the general election. Ryan easily held off a challenge from Morgan Harper and Traci "TJ" Johnson to secure the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @daveobrienCT.