Kenneth Blackwell is finished. CNN's Wolf Blitzer just said the network is projecting that Dem Ted Strickland has won the race to be Ohio's next Governor.

Only two areas were keeping their polling places open late to compensate for delays and problems earlier in the day, we reported earlier.

Now a third -- Ohio's Cuyahoga County -- will extend voting hours for its residents, because of "technical glitches an delays in opening," the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting.  Voters there will have until 9 p.m. local time to cast their ballot.

From the Election Protection coalition's morning update email:

EP volunteers and the EP hotline received widespread [reports] of voting machine problems leading to delays, as well as problems with confusion implementing the state’s photo ID requirement. Additionally, one polling place opened late because of an overnight break in. A local TV station aired footage of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s battle with an optical scan voting machine, which repeatedly rejected her ballot.

A day after trailing gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell spread unsubstantiated rumors linking Dem frontrunner Ted Strickland to pedophiles, the Blackwell campaign is today reaching even higher: It's pushing new rumors that Strickland is gay and took a trip with his "boy toy" to Italy. The Blackwell campaign today sent out a video of Wednesday night's Hannity and Colmes program on Fox News. On the show, guest Bill Cunningham -- an Ohio talk show host -- accused Strickland of taking a trip to Italy with an aide in 1998 "in order to enjoy a little fun" with a "26-year-old boy toy." Our screen grab shows Blackwell's campaign web site promoting video of the accusations. More after the jump.

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"I don't believe it." That's GOP gubernatorial candidate and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's response to Bob Woodward's account of President Bush calling him a "nut" in 2004. Speaking to the Cincinnati Enquirer's editorial board Tuesday, Blackwell dismissed the anecdote as something he couldn't comprehend. “Why would anyone think he did say that?" Blackwell pondered out loud. "I’ve known him half of my adult life.’’ We at Election Central have our own question: Could it be half a lifetime's knowledge that led Bush to conclude that Blackwell is a "nut?"

Bob Woodward's new book, State of Denial, reports that President Bush thinks Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell is a "nut." On page 347, Woodward depicts a scene where Bush is waiting for some 2004 election results. Woodward quotes Bush as follows: "I'm the President of the United States," Bush fumed, "waiting on a secretary of state who is a nut." Full scene after the jump.

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Almost two years on, controversy surrounding Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's decision to simultaneously co-chair the Bush/Cheney campaign in Ohio and act as Chief Election Officer overseeing that same election hasn't completely subsided. That's why Blackwell's prospective GOP successor was pressed on the question yesterday by a local Ohio newspaper.

Having avoided the question previously, Republican candidate Greg Hartman admitted that Blackwell's decision has been "a mistake," and not just in retrospect. Things already aren't going well for the controversial gubernatorial candidate, so having prominent members of his own party turn against him can't help.

Will Dems take the top two races in Ohio? The University of Cincinatti has just released its first poll of the Ohio races, and it finds that Dem Sherrod Brown is holding a four point lead over GOP Senator Mike DeWine, 51%-47%. Meanwhile, Dem gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickand is trouncing GOPer Ken Blackwell, 50-38%. The full poll here.

Update: A new Quinnipiac poll, meanwhile, shows a dead heat, with Brown leading DeWine 45%-44%.

There are some fascinating numbers in today's Quinnpiac poll on the Ohio Governor's race. In addition to leading overall by 21 points (55-34), Ted Strickland enjoys a 23 point lead over Ken Blackwell with independents, an astonishing 32 point lead with women, a 19 point lead on which candidate would best address issues of corruption (no small matter in the state of Ney and Taft), and a 13 point lead with self-described white evangelical Christians. And if that wasn't bad enough, Strickland also enjoys a lead in supporter enthusiasm, a realm in which you'd think the fiery Blackwell would reign, with 84% of his supporters describing their decision as final and only 78% of Blackwell's doing the same.

Buckeye State Blog has more.

CQ Politics thinks Dems may win it all at the top of the Ohio ticket -- it's just shifted the ratings of the two top races towards Dems. The Senate race between Dem Sherrod Brown and GOP Senator Mike DeWine has been shifted from "Leans Republican" to "No Clear Favorite." And the gubernatorial contest between Dem Ted Strickland and GOPer Ken Blackwell moves from "No Clear Favorite" to "Leans Democratic." CQ concludes that 2006 is "a uniquely challenging midterm campaign year for the Ohio GOP." CQ's full analysis here.

Matt Naugle, GOP candidate Ken Blackwell's official campaign blogger, apparently told Republican Charles "Rocky" Saxbe to "go f*ck yourself" after Saxbe spoke in support of the Democratic candidate at a "Republicans for Strickland" press conference. The expletive-laced comment came after Saxbe, the son of Nixon Attorney General William Saxbe, embarassed Naugle for erroneously claiming "that his father would be rolling over in his grave if he knew he was supporting Strickland.” During the press conference, Saxbe responded to the charge by noting "when I spoke to my father this morning, he didn’t seem to be too upset about it."

Who knew Dick Cheney was offering public speaking classes for young Republicans?

Did GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell spend gobs of Federal bucks to promote himself for Governor? Common Cause/Ohio says it's time for an audit of Blackwell’s use of Federal funds under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The group points to news articles which slam Blackwell for steering HAVA cash to big GOP donors and for using HAVA ads to pump up his public profile. Our favorite alleged malfeasance: As Secretary of State, Blackwell changed the traditional “I Voted Today” sticker given to Ohio voters to read “I Voted Today – Change Our World, Vote Your Conscience,” echoing a theme of his campaign. Pretty egregious, no?

In a sign that the GOP implosion continues in Ohio, University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato has changed the Governor's race from "Leaning Democratic" to "Likely Democratic" in his "Crystal Ball" report, which isn't all that surprising, given Ted Strickland's double digit lead over GOP candidate Ken Blackwell in polls. Sabato says Blackwell now has “too many burdens that are too heavy to prevail in this year, absent a miracle.”

How's this for a campaign ad: Ted Strickland will add you as his friend, but Ken Blackwell never will. Odd as this may sound, it's somewhat true, at least in the online world of MySpace, where Rep. Strickland (OH-6) has made his virtual presence known in an effort to attract young voters. Blackwell on the other hand has not only refused to join the social networking site, but a spokesman for his campaign has mocked Strickland for using it, saying "If we were running for senior class president, we'd be the first with a MySpace page, but we're running for governor, and we're actually trying to convey a message."

The early reviews of the first debate between GOP candidate Ken Blackwell and Dem Ted Strickland (OH-6) are coming in. The winner for most bizarre moment: Blackwell opined that all President Bush has to do for a political comeback on Iraq is "tap the memories of those of us who were wide awake on Sept. 11th some five years ago." (Who says Bush is in trouble?) Meanwhile, the folks at Politics Extra have an ongoing spin-check. Yellow Dog Sammy at the Ohio2006 Blog thinks Blackwell blundered by praising his own performance overseeing Ohio's disastrous 2004 voting problems. And the Toledo Blade's round up is here.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell -- who's trailing Dem candidate Ted Strickland by a startling 25 points -- has just gone negative in a big way. His new TV ad is called "Taxin' Ted." Get it? Ted taxes, and he's taxing, too! It slams Strickland for allegedly hiking taxes on gasoline and family income, and concludes: "Ohio’s already one of the highest taxed states -– costing us jobs. We don’t need Taxin’ Ted to make us number one." Somebody really, really likes the phrase "Taxin' Ted" -- we hear it four times in the ad. View it below:

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Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, currently trailing Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland--a Methodist minister — has built his campaign around religious conservatism, tapping into a trend of the religious right and the Ohio Republican Party's ongoing fusion. For example, one powerful megachurch leader and Blackwell supporter, Rod Parsley, has used bordline theocratic rhetoric in his services:

Parsley tells worshippers that Americans must be "Christocrats," becoming citizens of both their country and God’s kingdom.
"And that is not a democracy; that is a theocracy," he says of the divine world. "That means God is in control, and you are not."

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Did the Cleveland Plain Dealer get snookered by a big donor to GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell? It looks as if a Blackwell financial backer pretended to be an undecided voter in an interview with the paper in order to make it look as if swing voters were turning against Blackwell's Dem opponent, Ted Strickland.

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According to a report released by the Election Science Institute on Tuesday, Ohio-based Diebold's touch-screen voting machines are still flawed. In a study of Cuyahoga County's gubernatorial primary results, the electronic and paper records of vote totals in Cuyahoga County did not match more than 75 percent of the time. The ESI also found that 10 percent of paper records were "destroyed, blank, illegible, missing, taped together or otherwise compromised."

Diebold is having none of it. "The initial review and conclusions reached by ESI . . . simply are wrong," the company said in a press release yesterday. They blame poll-workers, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell agrees. Glad that's settled.

Are new voting regs being administered by Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell (R) -- you know, the same fellow who was responsible for longer voting lines in Ohio Dem precincts in 2004 -- making it much tougher to register poor voters in 2006?

Remember the saga of the gay-baiting email? Not long ago the Ohio GOP fired one of its operatives for sending out an email raising questions about the churchgoing record of gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland and floating speculation that Strickland is gay.

The email writer hasn't said sorry. So strangely enough, his daughter, who says she's "ashamed" of her father's tactics, has now decided to apologize for him. Read the eighteen-year-old college student's letter after the jump.

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Via Buckeye State Blog, Ohio secretary of state and GOP gubernatorial nominee Ken Blackwell was ordered yesterday to pay more than $60,000 in attorney fees to the Sandusky County Democratic Party. Sandusky Dems sued Blackwell prior to the 2004 election over his delayed directive to county elections boards regarding "provisional ballots": "The Help America Vote Act, enacted in 2002, permitted provisional ballots but Blackwell didn't get around to sending out his first directive until mid-September 2004." More after the jump.

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Dem candidate for governor Ted Strickland is demanding that his opponent, Ken Blackwell (R), release his full tax returns. Asked why Blackwell won't comply, Ohio state GOP official John McClelland seemed to, well, struggle a bit. He hemmed, hawed, stumbled and even asked a colleague to bail him out:

"Because Ken Blackwell has released all that he’s required to release, I...you know, I... it’s, this is just, I...I mean, what, really, what point is there -- Jason, you can jump in if you want, because -- I, no, listen, I -- listen, I, I don’t think that it’s relevant personally, um, you know, he has been asked to, you know, he has released all that he has been asked to release, you know, under the law.”

You can listen to his answer yourself here.