JEFFERSON —
Ashtabula County’s Board of Elections is awash in absentee ballot requests, which could indicate a bigger-than-usual turnout for the Nov. 6 presidential election, board members learned Wednesday.
More than 4,700 absentee ballot applications have been received as of Wednesday morning, said Duane Feher, deputy director. More than 6,000 applications could be in hand before the end of the end of October, he said.
Spurring some of the interest are
applications sent to every voter in the state by the Ohio Secretary of State’s office. Many local voters are taking up the state’s offer to cast a ballot in advance of Election Day. The number of ballots already delivered to Jefferson is “about 60 percent above normal,” Feher said.
Everything about the fall election will be big — including many of the ballots handed the county’s voters. The number of candidates, issues — and recent state ballot language changes — will mean a lot of two-page ballots, said Carol Lovas, director. The county expects to spend upwards of $33,000 to provide the bigger ballot, compared to the $28,000 initially budgeted, Feher said.
In addition, the larger ballot carries the potential of additional problems when loaded into tabulating machines at each precinct. As a result, the board plans to add extra trouble-shooters that will be stationed around the county and ready to respond to concerns. Eight so-called “rovers” worked the 2008 presidential election, Feher said.
Eight temporary workers will be hired over the next few weeks to help the board deal with the general election activity. “(A presidential election) is like the retail Christmas season — very demanding,” Feher said.
Meanwhile, regular election board employees — coming off an August special election — have not been able to take vacation and have logged long hours, Lovas said. Extended office hours mandated by the state and a squeezed calendar won’t allow administrators to provide workers with compensatory days, Lovas said. As a result, the board is mulling a plan to pay overtime to the employees, she said.
The overtime payments will be included in a budget adjustment heading to the county commissioners, Lovas said. The request will total between $10,000 and $15,000.
Board members were sympathetic. “There’s a lot you can’t control,” said chairman Joseph Varckette.
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