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Message from the Directors

Spring is almost here!

We are waiting on our overlapping counties to certify their candidates’ names to the

ballot, as well as the State-wide candidates and issues to be certified to us so that we

can complete our ballot for May. The filing deadline was February 7th, and we had

a total of 5 Issues filed locally, plus one overlapping issue from Crawford County.

The Questions and Issues which will appear on the May ballot include a .08 M Levy

Renewal for DaySpring for operational and capital expenses. In Shelby, a School

Bond Issue in the amount of 4.6 M for 34 years for improving and equipping school

buildings, and a 0.02% Income Tax for 5 years for roadway improvement and repair,

sidewalk replacement will be on the ballot. Shelby Ward 1 precinct A voters will

also see a Sunday Sales Local Option question. Cass Township has an Additional

Tax Levy in the amount of 1.5 M for 5 years for current expenses, and the Crestline

Exempted Village School District voters in Sandusky Township will have a Renewal

Tax Levy in the amount of 10 M for 5 years to avoid an operating deficit. There is

only one State Issue on the ballot. Issue #1 is the Redistricting Revisions Question.

Voters in the 12th Congressional District will see many more candidates on the ballot

than usual. There are multiple candidates on both party’s ballots for the full term of

the seat previously held by Representative Tiberi, plus there are also multiple

candidates on both party’s ballot for the Unexpired Term of the vacancy due to Mr.

Tiberi’s resignation. The nominee chosen by each party for the full term in this race

will appear on the November ballot. The nominee chosen by each party for the

unexpired term will appear on the August ballot in this district.

We had mentioned some changes in poll workers’ responsibilities and duties for

which we were asking our board to approve. After discussion at our last board

meeting, the board members voted to allow us to do a “Pilot Program” to test these

changes in 2 Vote Centers only for this Election, and then it would be evaluated to

determine if we should do it in all precinct throughout the county. For the May

Election, we will instruct the poll workers at these two Vote Centers individually

during our regular training sessions instead of through this newsletter so as not to

confuse other workers in polling locations where it will not be implemented this

election. We are still in the process of determining which two Vote Centers will be

included in the Pilot Program.

The POLL WATCHER

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 53

February 20, 2018

Inside This Issue 1 Message from the Directors

2 Poll Worker Training

3. Party Affiliation

4. Challenges

5. Calendar and Contact Info

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POLL WORKER STATION TRAINING

REGULAR STATION TRAINING – NOT MANDATORY – WE ESPECIALLY ENCOURAGE WORKERS

WHO HAVEN’T WORKED A PRIMARY PREVIOUSLY, AND ALL VLM’S TO ATTEND. OTHERS WHO WISH TO ATTEND MAY DO SO FOR A REFRESHER COURSE. COMPENSATION IS $15.00. ALL

CLASSES IN LOWER LEVEL #1 AND #2 CLASSROOMS AT THE LONGVIEW CENTER. YOU MUST STAY AND TRAIN FOR AT LEAST 1 ½ HOURS TO RECEIVE THE $15.00 TRAINING PAY.

TUESDAY APRIL 10TH 9:00 A.M. – 7:00 P.M. WEDNESDAY APRIL 11TH 9:00 A.M. – 7:00 P.M.

(IF YOU COME LATE IN THE DAY, PLEASE BE HERE BY 5:30 P.M. IN ORDER TO HAVE TIME TO COMPLETE YOUR TRAINING BEFORE THE STAFF LEAVES AT 7:00 P.M.)

SATURDAY APRIL 14TH 8:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M. (PLEASE BE HERE BY 12:30 P.M. IN ORDER TO HAVE TIME TO COMPLETE YOUR TRAINING BEFORE THE

STAFF LEAVES AT 2:00 P.M.)

NEW POLL WORKER TRAINING

SATURDAY APRIL 14TH 10:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. THIS CLASS IS ONLY FOR WORKERS WHO HAVE NEVER WORKED THE POLLS. YOU WILL HAVE ABOUT 1 ½ HOUR OF LECTURE/POWER POINT TRAINING, AND THEN ANOTHER 1 ½ HANDS-ON & STATION TRAINING TO REVIEW EACH ASPECT OF PROCESSING VOTERS, INCLUDING SETTING UP VOTING UNITS, PROVISIONAL VOTING, ELECTRONIC POLL BOOK TRAINING, ETC. ATTENDEES WILL BE PAID $25 FOR THIS TRAINING ON

YOUR CHECK FOR WORKING THE POLLS. THE FIRST PART OF THE CLASS IS IN THE UPPER LEVEL CLASSROOM AT THE LONGVIEW CENTER, 1495 W. LONGIVEW AVE., MANSFIELD, AND THEN WE WILL

MOVE DOWN TO THE LOWER LEVEL CLASSROOMS FOR THE HANDS-ON PORTION.

OPEN PRACTICE – MONDAY APRIL 30TH – 9:00 A.M. UNTIL 2:00 P.M. – LONGVIEW CENTER, LOWER LEVEL

CLASSROOM. NO COMPENSATION. YOU MAY COME ANYTIME DURING THESE HOURS AND STAY AS LONG AS YOU

WISH TO REVIEW SPECIFIC PROCEDURES. TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO WORK WITH YOU AS

NEEDED. IT IS NOT MANDATORY, BUT IT IS A GOOD WAY TO BECOME MORE CONFIDENT A WEEK PRIOR TO THE

ELECTION, ESPECIALLY ON THE SET-UP AND TEAR-DOWN OF THE VOTING UNITS, RUNNING REPORTS, USING THE

ELECTRONIC POLL BOOKS, ETC.

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In the May 8th Primary, voters may vote either a Republican, Democratic, Green, or Non-Partisan Issues Only Ballot in Richland County. Many voters confuse the term “Non-Partisan” and “Independent”. There is no recognized “Independent” party in Ohio, although candidates may choose to run as an Independent, as long as they meet specific requirements to demonstrate that they actually are not affiliated with any Party. This includes not having served in a partisan elected office within the past two years, not having served on the controlling committee of any organized political party (Central or Executive Committees), and not having voted in a party’s Primary within the past two years (this action alone does not necessarily disqualify the candidate from filing an Independent petition.) Independent petitions must be filed at the Board of Elections by May 7th, 2018 to appear on the November 6th General Election ballot. Any voters of any party, or no party, may sign the petition for a person to run as an Independent, and the candidate may choose to have the term “Independent” under his/her name on the November ballot, or to have nothing in that space on the ballot.

If a voter requests a “Non-Partisan” ballot at the polls, they will receive a ballot with only the Issues on it – no candidates’ names will appear on that ballot. We often refer to this ballot as an “Issues Only” ballot, since this term is more descriptive of the actual content of the ballot.

A voter does not have to officially fill out any form or take any action prior to a Primary in order to switch their party affiliation. They simply go to vote on May 8th and request whichever party’s ballot that they want. (Poll Workers who have worked quite a while will remember that there previously was a “challenge form” that the voter had to fill out and sign at the polls if they wanted to change party affiliation.) The only time now that the voter must fill out a challenge form for switching party affiliation is in the case of a poll worker who has personal knowledge that the voter does not support the party of the ballot requested. This would only be in rare cases, i.e. if the Chairperson of one party appeared at your polling place and requested the opposite party’s ballot.

We have removed the current party from the section of the voters’ records that appears on your Electronic Poll Book screen, so that it doesn’t confuse our workers and make them think that the voter must vote on that party’s ballot. However, the party affiliation will still appear on the “Hanging” lists that we send out to hang on the door of the precinct. The party must be designated on this list for the use of candidates’ committees who want to get out the vote only for their party’s supporters, etc.

The proper way to process a voter at the polls in a Primary, is to ask them to state their name, address, and which party they would like to vote for this Election. You must then make sure that you highlight the correct party from the list on the EP screen before creating the Voter Access Card. If you issue the wrong party’s ballot, and the voter notices it before he/she casts her ballot, you may re-issue a new voter access card programmed with the correct party on it. We do ask that you keep a list of any re-issues, since this will affect your vote totals in comparing your EP stats to your TSX stats after the Election. If the voter has already cast their ballot on the TSX voting unit, they may not vote again even if they did vote on the wrong party’s ballot.

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Form 10-U is included with your supplies at the polls for challenges to voters, if needed. This is entitled “Affidavit-Oath-Examination of Person Challenged”

R.C. 3505.20

The following 4 questions are choices on this Challenge form. These are rarely used, but are to be asked if you have reason to believe that the person is not eligible to vote in your precinct. Options A, B, and D are actually asked on the voter’s registration form, so unless the voter provided incorrect information when registering, all voters would have answered these question already in order to be registered & listed on your voter database. For example, no voter appears in your database or on your lists unless they are at least the minimum required age. Remember that 17 year old voters may vote in a Primary for any nomination of candidates, as long as the voter will be 18 years of age by the date of the November Election. 17 years old voters are not allowed to vote upon the issues on the ballot, since they are actually decided upon in the Election, versus being nominated, as are most candidates. (As always, there are exceptions to this – the Republican Central Committee candidates on the ballot for May are actually being elected (not just nominated), so 17 year old voters cannot vote in those races.) We realize that many 17 year olds will vote the entire ballot – so each 17 year old’s ballot is checked at the Board office on Election night before being counted to make sure they only voted in races for which they were allowed to cast a vote. This is the reason why these voters must vote on paper, versus the TSX units. We would not be able to isolate the votes cast on the TSX to check this before counting.

_____________________________________________________________________ Option C * is a question that may arise in your precinct. If you have reason to believe that a voter has moved from the precinct, but is attempting to still cast his/her ballot at your polling location, you should challenge them with this form. Specific questions to ask are included on the form. If the poll workers are unable to verify the residence address, a provisional ballot should be offered to this voter

(A) Are you a citizen of the United States? (If the person offering to vote answers the question in the affirmative the person shall be entitled to vote a regular ballot.)

(B) Have you resided in this state for thirty days immediately preceding this election?

(C) *The person is not a resident of the precinct where the person offers to vote

(D) The person is not of legal voting age

Please be aware that while you should do your due diligence to make sure only eligible voters may cast a ballot, it is ultimately the responsibility of the voter to know if he/she is eligible to register & vote, and is at the correct polling location for their residence address. When they register to vote, or fill out a registration form for a change, they are swearing that the information on that form is correct.

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Election Calendar

Saturday March 24 – UOCAVA Voting Starts (Military Voters)

Monday April 9th – Registration Deadline – Office open until 9:00 P.M.

Tuesday April 10th – Regular Absentee/Early Voting Starts

Tuesday April 10th – Poll Worker Training

Wednesday April 11 – Poll Worker Training

Saturday April 14th – Poll Worker Training

Saturday April 14th – New Poll Worker Training

Monday April 30th – Open Practice 9-2

Monday May 7th – Equipment & Supply Pick Up Day

Tuesday May 8th – Election Day

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RICHLAND COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS 1495 W. Longview Ave. Suite 101

Mansfield, Ohio 44906 419.774.5530 - www.richlandcountyoh.us/boe - boardofelections@richlandcountyoh.us

BOARD MEMBERS JEFF WILKINSON, CHAIRMAN JOSEPH H. MUDRA, MEMBER

LYDIA J. REID, MEMBER KAREN BROWNING, MEMBER

ADMINISTRATION

PAULETTE HANKINS, DIRECTOR, phankins@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5533

BILL FREYTAG, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, bfreytag@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5532

STAFF

DEBBIE OBENOUR, IT TECHNICAL SUPPORT SPECIALIST V dobenour@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5537

CARRIE HILL, ELECTION SPECIALIST II, chill@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5235

DIANA NAUMOFF, ELECTION SPECIALIST I, dnaumoff@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.7878

JEN DOVER, ELECTION SPECIALIST I, jdover@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5236