CLERMONT COUNTY - Ohio Election officials took great pride in the primary this year, as a shortage of paper ballots across Ohio turned Ohio an earth-friendly green on Tuesday.

Clermont County Election Official Mary Jo Niebernaber says that the planned ballot shortage was just the first part in their "Reduce Ballots, Reuse Ballots, and Recycle Ballots" Initiative.

"I think we really were most successful in reducing the number of trees killed with our ballot shortage initiative," said Niebernaber, "But we also tried to convince people to reuse those wasted discarded ballots - all you really need is a little bit of white-out."

Election officials were also reusing some of the thousands of Republican ballots, with some quick changes to the ballot text (see ballot pictured at right).  

And the recycle part?  Niebernaber says that the remaining thousands of unused Republican ballots will be on the curb in her green bin this Thursday morning.

"I don't know why we even printed any Republican ballots this year," she said, "Think of all the trees that were killed, and so needlessly.  After all, I think everybody's gone Democrat this year."