karen kasler, in ohio, back to you. what about the pandemic and the role it's playing?e of the states that is seeing the cases number of cases climb. how much is that driving voter decision about who to vote for? wh's on the mind of voters? karen: i think covid and the economy. those are the two things. the economy is always a big factor in ohio elections. but i think this year, when you pair it with covid, then you definitely get that mix that is driving people to vote. ohio is a state that trump, experts say, has to win, but biden doesn't have to win. but it's not a state that necessarily people thought that biden was going to be competitive in because of 2016. as you mentioned, trump won by eight points. and in 2018, there were some pockets of blue activity, but not nearly at the statewide level. but then this covid crisis has hit. and so you have more than almost two-thirds of ohio restaurants say that they're probably not going to reopen after the pandemic. that's a big deal to a lot of people. and so i think it's driving part of what's happening here. and we are s

mary lahammer, jeff tiberi and karen kasler in ohio, thank you all three.ll see you soon. >> reporter: in the southwest, a once robust mining town is looking to a growing arts community as a new economic driver. stephanie sy reports on how ajo, arizona, is trying to cast off the image of a "ghost town" and become an arts destination. it's part of our "american creators" series and ongoing arts and culture coverage, "canvas." >> reporter: in the middle o the 10,000 miles of the sonoran desert lies a dusty town near the arizona border with mexico. a central plaza built in spanish colonial revival style emerges like an oasis, a vestige of an era when ajo had a successful copper mine. today, it's reinventing itself through art. on an atypically cloudy monday afternoon, visiting artist christopher lutter-gardella was busy putting up his latest work in the center of the town plaza. the dove is made of reclaimed materials, and incorporates written messages of peace from students across the border. >> inviting everybody in and celebrating our common humanity was re

for more on the state of play here in ohio, i spoke with karen kasler, ohio state house bureau chief for ohio public radio and television. right now, there is so much attention being paid to voting irregularities, especially considering so many people are already voting. what are some things in ohio that people are concerned about? >> ohioans have been early voting since 2006. so, this is not new to ohioans. it's not a brand new experiment. but this year, 2.1 million ohioans havesked for absentee ballots by mail, and that is much bigger than the previous record of two million back in 2012. so this is a huge number. and they've been flooding boards of elections with these absentee ballot requests. and now, with early voting in-person underway, they've also been coming to the early vote center in each county. right now, we have triple the number of people who came in the first week. 193,000 ohioans cast ballots in person the first week. that's triple the number that cast ballots in 2016 in the first week. so these are huge numbers that are coming in. most of them are unaffiliated voter