Statewide News

The campaign of 2011 is just a few hours away from its conclusion, and there have been few reports of voters who waited till today to cast ballots experiencing problems. While elections officials in several counties did report heavy turnout for early voting, Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted says that’s not necessarily an indication of a huge number of people coming to the polls in an off-year election.

The union-backed group pushing for the repeal of Ohio's new collective bargaining law has spent more than $17.3 million in the fight and has another $4.3 million on hand heading into the Nov. 8 election.

Campaign finance reports filed Thursday show We Are Ohio has raised a $19 million from July to mid-October. The coalition wants to overturn the law, which bans strikes by public worker and restricts their collective bargaining rights.

Animals rights advocates say state leaders are not doing enough to deal wtih problems involving exotic animals in Ohio. Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles reports.