John Kasich

Ohio Gov. John Kasich pauses to read his notes as he speaks during a news conference at The Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens May 4 in Columbus. Kasich announced the end of his underdog White House bid. Thomas Suddes writes that Kasich's willingness to think for himself is a key to his popularity in Ohio.

(John Minchillo, Associated Press, File)

In the latest Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll, released Wednesday, Gov. John Kasich drew a 58 percent job-approval rating among the Ohio voters Quinnipiac polled.

But Quinnipiac found that governors in the other two swing states it assayed, Pennsylvania Democrat Tom Wolf and Florida Republican Rick Scott, are, politically speaking, "both under ... water."

Here's a reason Kasich, a Republican, is politically successful in closely divided Ohio: He appears to think for himself, despite partisan pressures.

A few days before the Quinnipiac announcement, Kasich vetoed a bill every Republican in the Ohio General Assembly who was present had voted for; in contrast, every Democrat present voted against it. That is, Kasich - albeit, on very narrow grounds - sided, in effect, with Democrats.

Substitute Senate Bill 296 could have made it financially dangerous for someone to ask a judge to keep Election Day polling places open beyond the statewide 7:30 p.m. closing time.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. William Seitz, a suburban Cincinnati Republican, required someone asking for that to post a bond. Democrats called that a poll tax. Here's why:

If a court kept polls open, but its order were overturned, SB 296 said a judge could order the bond forfeited to cover costs a Board of Elections racked up to keep polls open. (An indigent wouldn't have to post a bond, but if a court kept polls open for him, only he could vote during the extra time.)

If the bond amount didn't cover an elections board's costs (including SB 296's requirement setting overtime pay at $22.50 an hour for each precinct official), a judge could order the person who'd asked to keep polls open to personally make up the shortfall.

What prompted SB 296 was a legal action last November. A (Republican) Hamilton County Common Pleas judge ordered polls kept open there till 9 p.m. Reason: Problems poll workers had with electronic poll books risked denying some voters a chance to cast ballots.

Former Ohio Senate Minority Leader Eric Kearney, a Cincinnati Democrat, was the plaintiff

who asked to keep the polls open. Kearney said he went to court when he learned voters were encountering difficulties at numerous polling places that day.

True, as Kasich noted, "Ohio law already requires that any voter in line when polls close at 7:30 p.m. can still vote" - something Seitz's bill wouldn't have changed. And Kasich said he supports a uniform statewide procedure for keeping polls open after 7:30 p.m., something SB 296 did. But, Kasich said, SB 296 also eliminated judges' discretion to waive a bond, "a step too far ... [which] should not become law."

So Kasich vetoed the bill.

Seitz said Kasich's reasoning is "legally and mathematically untenable" because the Ohio Rule of Civil Procedure Kasich cited to justify the veto "nowhere allows for the waiver of the bond requirement, although rogue judges have."

The veto, Seitz said, "subordinated the interests of Ohio taxpayers and poll workers to the interests of those who want to game Election Day voting hours."

But just maybe Kasich was upholding the (paramount) interests of Ohioans in the right to vote. And that's a matter of fairness - and John Kasich's perceived fairness, arguably, ornery independence, may be why a majority of the Ohioans Quinnipiac asked thinks its governor does a good job.

Meanwhile: Kasich last week appointed a Democrat to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio - Columbus lawyer M. Howard Petricoff.

He'll be the first Democrat on the five-member PUCO since the term of Steven D. Lesser, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, expired last year. Of the PUCO incumbents Petricoff will join, two are Republicans, two, independents.

Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.

To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@gmail.com, 216-999-4689