Board of Elections approves machine allocation for May election

Yahoo

09-04-2025

JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Board of Elections approved machine allocations for the May 6 election at a meeting Tuesday.
This election will see all county precincts in use, because there is a state-wide issue on the ballot.
All polling places will remain the same from last election, except for three precincts in Saybrook, which have been moved from Lakeside High School to Lakeside Junior High School, because of the former's roof collapse.
Board of Elections Director John Mead said the junior high might stay a polling place if it works out better for parking.
Poll worker training started Monday, he said.
'It's going very well,' he said. 'We're focusing on the provisional ballot, but also a general overview of all of the processes.'
The lessons have largely been the same, except those for newer poll workers, Mead said.
'This being a full-county election, and it's 416 poll workers, so there's a number of classes between now and [the election],' he said.
Mead said the board wants to recruit more Democratic poll workers to match the amount Republicans poll workers.
'I think we'll be fine,' he said. 'We always want to have a reserve, and I think the reserves for the Democrats is very narrow. Of course, when you just look at the demographics of this county, of course that's going to be the case at the moment.'
The board will vote on provisional ballots at 8:30 a.m. May 12, certify election results at 8:30 a.m. May 14 and have a possible audit May 22.
Mead said they are encouraging polling places to move away from voting booths to tables with privacy shields on election day.
'We're always trying to save the taxpayers money, make things more efficient,' he said. 'We're going to migrate to where it's possible that you can set up a table and some chairs, and a couple of those shields.'
Some booths are more expensive, Deputy Director Charlie Frye said.
'The voting booths we found are $115, but the ones that replaced now, with the lights, they're over $300,' he said.
Mead said the tables cost around $10-15.
The Board of Elections is planning a mock election at county high schools in August.
'We have a window until we have to do our ballot layout for the November election,' Frye said. 'What we would like to do is work with the schools to come up with a ballot that would be uniform to all the schools participating.'
Mead and Frye have been reaching out to local superintendents and principals to organize it.
'We'll do a voter registration drive and poll worker recruitment off of it,' Frye said.
Frye said they are looking at replacing outdated supplies
'The rolling blue bags that poll workers use, some of them were getting worn, so we're replacing those with some of the grant money,' he said.
The board received a grant from Ohio for the election, because of the state-wide ballot issue.
Obsolete equipment was donated to A-Tech, Mead said.
'[That] freed up a lot of room on the second floor here,' he said.