Board of Elections approves machine allocations
Apr. 7—JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Board of Elections met on Thursday morning, and finalized machine allocations for the upcoming May primary election.
One significant change from previous elections impacts a handful of voters in Sheffield Township. They will be voting in Monroe Township instead.
Board of Elections Director Charlie Frye said moving the voters to the Monroe Fire Hall would save the board more than $1,000.
Letters have been sent to affected voters informing them of the change, along with an absentee ballot application, in case they do not want to go to the Monroe Fire Hall to vote.
Board of Elections Deputy Director John Mead said only about 20 voters in Sheffield Township live in the Conneaut Area City Schools district.
There are no other issues or primaries on the ballot for the rest of Sheffield Township, meaning the remaining township residents have nothing to vote on.
Frye said a note will be left at Sheffield's normal polling location to inform voters about the change.
There are no county-wide offices or issues on the May primary ballot, so voting will only take place where there is a local primary or issue on the ballot.
In other business:
—The board approved a contract with B. Fink Consulting for chargebacks for the upcoming primary.
"In off-year elections, the subdivisions that have any issues on the ballot, like a levy, those costs associated with that election, the poll workers, the ballots, the transportation, all of that is charged back to that subdivision and they pay the costs of doing that," Frye said.
The subdivisions do not pay the costs of electronics, poll books, and other costs, he said.
Mead said the formula for the chargebacks is very complicated.
—Frye said training for poll workers was completed on Wednesday night, unless a class needs to take place for alternate poll workers.
"The training went very well, it was well thought out, planned and executed," Mead said.
Board member Susan Hagan also complemented the training, but expressed concerns about recent changes to state law about the types of acceptable identification to vote on election day.
Frye said a video explaining the changes to the law is on the Board of Elections' website, boe.ohio.gov/ashtabula.
"We ended up having multiple counties contact us, wanting to use that video in their county as well," he said.
—There will be no Republican or non-partisan primary in the city of Ashtabula, and Frye warned Republican and independent voters that showing up to vote and requesting a Democratic ballot will change their registered party.
"We know from past experience, in May [2021], there was a Democrat-only primary in wards three and four," he said. "After the fact, people actually called here and were upset."
He said he raised the issue to let the public know.
"The only ballot in Ashtabula city is a Democrat party ballot," Frye said.
