Election officials urge absentee voters to return ballots by end of day

Voter turnout expected near 55%

LISBON -- Columbiana County election officials are urging voters who still have absentee ballots to drop them off in person today at the board office, 7989 Dickey Drive, Lisbon, no later than 7:30 p.m. if they want them to count.

Any absentee ballots arriving after the deadline tonight, with the exception of ballots coming from overseas, will not count for the general election.

"There are only 423 outstanding ballots that need to come in," county Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco said Monday, referring to absentee ballots requested that have yet to arrive.

If an absentee ballot arrives in the mail after Election Day, it will not count, even if it's postmarked before the election. The only exception to that is the absentee ballots coming from outside the country for military or overseas voters.

During the board meeting for the Board of Elections, Fusco shared the numbers for the in-office voting and the absentee ballots received so far, a total of 10,515 as of Monday afternoon.

Fusco said "17% of our county has already voted."

That's out of 63,853 registered voters. She's expecting voter turnout to be at least 54% to 55%.

The polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. today for voters to visit their polling place and cast a ballot. Not sure where to vote? Visit the board website at columbianaboe.ohio.gov and click on Am I Registered, then put in the name to see the polling place, the address and even directions.

The number of early in-office voters was 6,443, with 3,964 by mail so far. Deputy Director Niki Wilkinson said the trend is continuing, with more voters casting ballots in person at the office than sending ballots through the mail.

During the meeting, the board conducted an absentee ballot review of ballots needing the board to decide if voter intent was obvious, if there was an overvote, erasures, errant marks or other issues.

Fusco reviewed them with the board, noting that there were 12 overvotes, meaning the voter voted for two separate candidates for the same office. Those votes won't count. The scanner used to scan the ballots kicked them out because of the overvote. Now they'll be run back through so other races will be counted. The races with the overvotes will not count, but everything else on a ballot will.

There was one blank ballot with the voter not filling anything out or making any marks whatsoever.

There were five problem scans for ballots which will be remade in a bipartisan manner, following voter intent. In that case, there may have been some type of issue when the ballot was scanned.

Then the board reviewed one by one 30 ballots to determine voter intent. In these cases, the oval may not have been darkened enough, or there was an errant pen drop or the voter used pencil, which can't be picked up by the scanner. There was even a voter who used x's to indicate their choices instead of filling in the ovals.

Board members were in agreement with all of them and gave Wilkinson and Fusco permission to remake the ballots to put them through the scanner reflecting the obvious voter intent.

The board also approved chargebacks from the May primary election totaling $15,784. Fusco said in even years, local subdivisions with something on the ballot are charged for ballots and advertising. The county share for the chargebacks was $13,945, with the following charges for the subdivisions: St. Clair Township, $683.88; Butler Township, $587.19; Wayne Township, $337.71; and East Liverpool City 1B, Salem City 2 A, Leetonia Village and Knox Township Northwest, all $57.75.

In a routine election move, the board voted to permit board staff to work in bipartisan teams to examine provisional ballot envelopes to categorize them for board review for today's election.

Bills of $46,664 were approved for the month of September, with no election expense except for $3,550 in postage for the mailing of absentee ballots. She also noted $9,867 spent for two new laptops and two new printers using a grant from the Secretary of State, with the new laptops used during early in-office voting.

In a personal matter after the Pledge of Allegiance and the prayer, board Vice Chairman Patricia Colian said they should remember past member Greg Smith, who recently passed away from cancer. The board held a moment of silence to honor his memory. Smith was still with the board during the primary election, resigning effective May 29.

"Greg was a great individual in this county, did a lot for people in need," board Chairman David Johnson said. "He always had the best interests of the county in mind. He will be missed."

The meeting recessed and the board will reconvene tonight to certify unofficial results and set meeting dates related to reviewing the provisional ballots and for the official tally.