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LISBON -- The Columbiana County Board of Elections deputy director Bryce Miner said the August 2 special primary election ballot will feature state representative candidates, state senate candidates and state central committee candidates of both political parties.
Director Kim Fusco outlined upcoming deadlines pertinent to the August election. "The protest deadline is June 6 for anybody that's a candidate," Fusco said. "We also have candidate withdrawals June 13 and August 1 for the independent candidates."
According to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRoe's election schedule, UOCAVA absentee ballots for the August 2 special election must be ready for use, 46 days before the election, on June 17. "So from that point, the voter registration deadline is July 5," Fusco said. "We will be here till 9 p.m. that night. In office and absentee mail begins mailing the ballots out July 6 according to the schedule."
Fusco said people need to request their absentee ballots again even if they got one for May. "If you requested for the primary election and you received a ballot, you will need to do an additional one for the August 2 because they are different candidates," Fusco said.
Miner said the county is in the 33rd senate district now. "Our state rep district is split in two so there's four townships that are in the 59th and the rest of the county is in the 79th district.
"There are 11 precincts that are in the 59th district," Fusco added. "The other ones are 62 precincts in the 79th district."
At the board's Wednesday meeting, it also certified the recount for the Wayne Township fire levy. Election night, the levy received 73 votes in favor and 74 votes against it, which triggered an automatic recount, Fusco said, and said the original count stood.
"This morning we came in," she said. "We had everything ready and prepped so we just did a hand count of five percent that would have equated to eight ballots out of the 147. Bryce ran them through the machine and the first page is the eight counts and the rest is the other ballots. [This] is the grand tally that matches exactly what the official certification came out to be. I would say it's unfortunate but the levy did fail. It didn't change."
The board also certified post-election audit results. "We separated into teams of two and did the hand count. It matched exactly what the official certification results are," Fusco said. "That made our audit completely 100 percent accurate; proof that what the eye sees, the hand sees and the machine sees. All three are the same."
Board chair David Johnson said he thinks the county is on top of things. "Fourteen thousand votes and we didn't have a single change," he said. "The contested race that you went back and hand-counted, it was accurate so that tells us the technology we have is pretty good. The voters of our county should have confidence in all we've invested in the system and all the training that has gone into. I think everybody is on top of it."
Miner said it wouldn't be possible without poll workers. "They executed on election day," he said. "We can't do it without them and we're going to need them on August 2. It's tough in the summer because a lot of families may have vacation. That's also fair week, senior day at the fair. We have a lot of things kind of stacked against us."
Fusco said she invites people to call and volunteer for the August 2 special primary election. Board members also voted Wednesday to certify state representative candidates Taylor Eastham and Monica Robb Blasdel, again.
"If you remember a few meetings ago, you decertified the state candidates for the 79th district which was democratic candidate Taylor Eastham and Monica Robb Blasdel, republican candidate for state rep," Fusco said. "Nothing has changed with them, they contain the number of valid signatures and they were circulated properly."
llehman@mojonews.com