Latest news with #AshtabulaCountyBoardofElections
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Local board of elections helped other counties with paper pollbooks
In the lead up to the May 6 special election, many Ohio counties switched back to paper pollbooks, at least temporarily. A number of those counties reached out to the Ashtabula County Board of Elections, which was one of three county boards of elections in Ohio that still use paper pollbooks, along with Sandusky and Noble counties. Board of Elections Deputy Director Charlie Frye said the Ohio Secretary of State's Office told the roughly 55 counties relying on KNOWiNK electronic pollbooks to go back to paper after Perry County discovered issues with them. The KNOWiNK-reliant counties reached out to the Ashtabula County Board of Elections, who 'lend best practice,' Frye said. 'We didn't really micromanage, because every county board of elections is different,' he said. The counties told to switch to paper pollbooks relied on the Ashtabula County Board of Elections' training videos to learn about paper pollbooks and train poll workers, Frye said. Frye does not expect most of the counties to stick with paper pollbooks, he said. 'Its hard to say,' he said. Frye said the Ashtabula County Board of Elections was one of the first counties in the state to adopt electronic pollbooks. 'Our experience with it wasn't really a great experience,' he said. The board decided to transition back to paper after having issues with electronic pollbooks, such as bad updates that caused screens to freeze or go black, he said. 'We were just not happy,' he said. During the 2020 election, the county board of elections' electronic pollbooks had an issue, where 44 voters were not logged in them. 'That was kind of like the straw that broke the camel's back for us,' Frye said. The board of elections switched back to paper pollbooks in 2021, he said. 'It just made more sense to go back to paper,' Frye said. The electronic pollbooks the board used were going to be out of date, and it would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to update to a new system, Frye said. The switch back to paper has worked out well for the board. 'We've been fine ever since,' Frye said. Frye has noticed poll workers are more engaged with their work and the electoral process since the board of elections went back to paper pollbooks, he said.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Board of elections approves 26 provisional ballots, rejects six
JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Board of Elections approved 26 provisional ballots at a meeting Monday. Board of elections Director John Mead said the counted provisional votes will not affect the results of anything on the ballot. The board also accepted a provisional ballot, pending review by the Ohio Secretary of State's Office. Board of elections Deputy Director Charlie Frye said the voter had a religious objection to using a photo ID. Typically Amish voters object to the use of a photo ID for religious reasons, he said. Frye said the Secretary of State's Office is checking if the voter has a photo ID. 'We anticipate that this is going to be a good voter, however, the secretary of state's office said the earliest they're going to get back with [us] is tomorrow,' he said. The vote will not be counted if the secretary of state's office determines the person has a photo ID, Frye said. Frye said there were 10 absentee ballots from the election that arrived by the Saturday deadline. The board of elections will vote on certifying official election results at its next meeting 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. The board voted to reject six provisional ballots. Three were rejected because voters failed to provide a photo ID. Two provisional ballots were rejected because the voters already voted. 'There were two voters that came into our office to vote, and decided to go vote on election day as well,' Frye said. Frye said the two voters were older and likely misremembered voting. 'That's why we train for it,' he said. 'Obviously, if was something nefarious, we would suggest an alternate route.' One was rejected because the voter was not registered in the state. 'This was a voter that came in to vote, who had lived in [Pennsylvania],' Frye said. 'They had moved here, but they didn't have an ID. They just weren't registered here.' Frye said the overall election went well and the poll workers did a good job. 'We had an electric blurb in the southwestern part of the county for about seven [to] eight minutes,' he said. 'The way they explained to me, a transformer breaker that went out had to be reset, and basically it knocked the power out for about 10 minutes.' The board of elections is preparing to host a mock election for county high schoolers at the end of August. Frye said the event will work on recruiting future poll workers and engage students with voting. 'Those aren't long-term solutions, but it's a start,' he said. Five schools are participating in the mock election. The five schools are: Grand Valley, Geneva, Edgewood and Saint John high schools and A-Tech. Mead said GV was a recent addition. 'We're happy to have the one down south, because the rest of them are way up north,' he said. Conneaut, Jefferson and Pymatuning Valley high schools could not participate, Mead said. The board did not hear back from Lakeside High School.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Geneva Township fire levy passes
JEFFERSON — A 1.75-mill Geneva Township Fire Levy passed Tuesday by a vote of 196-124, assuring continued fire coverage by the Geneva Fire Department, according to unofficial results from the Ashtabula County Board of Elections. The levy will used predominantly to pay the Geneva Fire Department for fire coverage. 'I'm happy as I can be. I want to thank all the township residents that voted for it,' Geneva Township Trustee Tim Mills said. He said it is great that the township will continue to get fantastic service from the Geneva Fire Department. The township reduced the levy to 1.75 mills after a two-mill levy failed three times, Mills said. He said the township decided to reduce the levy in hopes of providing a better chance at passage. He said he is not sure why the levy failed three times, but thought maybe the .25 mill reduction may have helped this time. The two-mill levy provided the township with some extra money to assist the Geneva Fire Department, but the new levy money will leave a couple thousand of dollars extra, Mills said. He said he understood people don't want to pay taxes, but the coverage provided by the Geneva Fire Department goes beyond what the township could provide on its own. Mills said the Geneva Fire Department provides a lot of extras as well. He said the department provides education opportunities through the schools, helped remove snow from roofs during the Thanksgiving weekend snow storm and even assist people who have locked themselves out of their vehicles. Mills said the township would have had to reduce services if the levy had not passed. He said money that goes to other services, especially road maintenance, would have had to go to fire services. In addition, the township would have had to buy fire trucks and turnout gear, Mills said. He also said the response time would have been a problem, as a fire doubles in size every 30 seconds. County-wide, Ashtabula County Board of Elections Director John Mead said there were no issues. 'Everything went really well,' he said. Mead said no issue on the ballot was close enough to trigger an automatic recount. According to unofficial results, voter turnout was 13.7% for the election. Mead was thankful for the people who came out to vote and for the poll workers, who were on the job this election, he said. 'We'll do it all again in November,' he said. By Friday, the board of elections had 728 people vote early at its Jefferson office. Mead said the board received 44 more early votes Saturday and 46 Sunday.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As of Friday, 728 people have voted in person at county board of elections
JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Board of Elections has been see some early voting before the special election Tuesday. All county precincts will be open because of the state wide issue on the ballot, which would permit the continued issuance of bonds to fund to public infrastructure in Ohio, if passed. According to the county board of election's website, 728 people have voted early in-person at the board of elections, as of Friday afternoon. 'Early voting has been slow, but steady,' Board of Elections Director John Mead said. Mead said special elections after general elections are usually slower. 'It has picked up as we get close to election day,' he said. Early voting will continue today from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. at the Board of Election's office at 8 W. Walnut Street in Jefferson. Precincts will be open Tuesday from 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Almost all county precincts will stay the same as the last election, the exception is Saybrook Township precincts 2, 4 and 8, which were moved to Lakeside Junior High School because of the Lakeside High School roof collapse. Along with the state-wide issue, there are 11 levies, both county-wide and local. All candidates on the ballot are unopposed. According to the board of election's website, 373 people have requested an absentee ballot by mail. The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot has passed, Mead said. 'That deadline was the 28th of April,' he said. Mead said absentee ballots need to be mailed by Monday in order to be accepted by the board of election's office. The board of elections has sent out 214 absentee ballots to nursing homes, according to its website. Mead said the board of elections reaches out to county nursing homes to accommodate seniors. Most of those have come back by now, he said. Mead said 14 people have come by the board of election's office to request an absentee ballot to take home and fill out. The board of elections has sent out three UOCAVA emails that accommodate soldiers serving overseas. There have also been three curbside votes collected. Mead said these voters are in the board of election's parking lot, and cannot come into the building because of medical issues. 'We do everything to accommodate voters within [Ohio] Revised Code,' he said. The board of election sends poll worker staff of each major party to work with them, Mead said.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Board of Elections approves machine allocation for May election
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.
