Early voting for Aug. 2 primary election continues this week in Marion County

Early voting ahead of the Aug. 2 primary election is winding down this week.

The voting center at the Marion County Board of Elections (BOE) will be open through Monday, Aug. 1 for in-person voting and for people to drop off absentee ballots. Voters can drop off ballots in the BOE office located on the ground floor of the Marion County Building, 222 W. Center St. in downtown Marion, or in the drop box behind the county building.

Following is the schedule for the remainder of the early voting period in Marion County:

• Monday, July 25 to Friday, July 29, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

• Saturday, July 30, 2022, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• Sunday, July 31, 1 to 5 p.m.

• Monday, August 1, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Absentee ballot applications for the Aug. 2 primary election are still available at the Marion County Board of Elections office or on the website www.boe.ohio.gov/marion. Click on the "Absentee Information" tab and then click on the "Absentee Voting" tab for information.

More: Marion County residents will see another light ballot for the Aug. 2 primary election

More: Wanted: Volunteer poll workers for Aug. 2 primary election in Marion County

More: Our view: Supreme Court highlights importance of Ohio's August primary

Ballot applications are also available at the U.S. Post Office on Barks Road and adjacent to the drop box behind the Marion County Building in downtown Marion. Residents can also call the Board of Elections and request that an application be mailed to them. The telephone number is 740-223-4090.

The deadline to request an application for an absentee ballot is noon on Saturday, July 30. Absentee ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by Aug. 1. Absentee ballots not returned by mail must be dropped off at the Board of Elections office by 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 2.

Poll workers still needed

Board of Elections Director Cindy Price said poll workers are still needed for election day. She said a minimum of 130 poll workers are needed to man all the precincts on election day, however, she would like to have about 154 volunteers available. The minimum age for poll workers is 17 and they have to be a senior high school.

Marion County has 65 voting precincts spread across six locations: Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Richland Road Church of Christ, Knights of Columbus hall, Dayspring Wesleyan Church, Cornerstone Alliance Church, and the Elgin Local Schools Administration Office.

On election day, poll workers will be at voting sites from 5:30 a.m. until about 8:30 p.m., Price said.

"The poll workers assist the voters with the check-in process, escort them to the voting machines, scan their ballots prior to leaving — just walking people through that whole process," Price said. "The information table will have sample ballots and a list of registered voters if they want to check all that out before they go to check in to vote. Poll workers assist people with all of that."

Two poll workers are assigned to each precinct — one Democrat and one Republican.

People interested in volunteering to be a poll worker can contact the Marion County Board of Elections at 740-223-4090 or email marion@OhioSoS.gov. People can also register to become poll workers by visiting VoteOhio.gov and clicking on "Poll Worker Resources" under the "Vote on Election Day" section.

What's on the ballot?

The featured races in the August election are the party primaries for the 86th and 87th Ohio House districts. In the 86th District, incumbent Rep. Tracy Richardson faces a challenge from Dublin resident Michael R. Bohland for the Republican Party nomination.

Richardson, a Marysville resident, is in her second term in the Ohio House. She won both general election campaigns by landslide. Richardson won the 2018 Republican Party primary election after collecting 72% of the vote and then ran without opposition in the 2020 primary election.

According to the biography on his campaign website, Bohland is a resident of Dublin who has spent his entire professional career in the manufacturing and textile industry. He has worked at Honda for the past 14 years.

Marysville attorney Barbara A. Luke is running without opposition in the Democratic Party primary election in the 86th House District. According to her campaign website, she is the founder of her own law firm in Marysville, Luke Lawyers.

In the 87th House District, incumbent Rep. Riordan McClain is unopposed in the Republican Party primary. There is no Democratic Party candidate on the ballot.

McClain, now in his second term in the Ohio House, won a tight race in 2018 to capture the Republican Party nomination and then easily captured the general election after earning 73% of the vote. McClain ran without opposition in the 2020 GOP primary election and cruised to victory in the general election with 76% of the vote in his favor.

Also on the ballot are Democratic and Republican party races for the 26th Ohio Senate District State Central Committee.

On the Democratic Party side, Tony Eufinger and Randy Weston are the male candidates while Kathleen A. Nalley and Carolyn Weston are the female candidates.

On the Republican side, Charles A. Knight, Raymond Metzger, and Jonathan Zucker are the male candidates and Lisa Cooper is the lone female candidate.

The lone issue on the Aug. 2 ballot is the renewal of an income tax for the Cardington-Lincoln School District. Only residents of Richland Township precinct A are voting on this issue. If it passes, the 0.75% income tax would be renewed for five years.

For information about elections in Marion County, go to the board of elections website www.boe.ohio.gov/marion.

Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Early voting for primary election continues this week in Marion County