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LISBON -- Some voters in East Palestine, Unity Township, Lisbon and Salem can expect to receive a yellow postcard in the mail soon telling them about their new polling location for voting.
The Columbiana County Board of Elections agreed Thursday to change a handful of locations for various reasons.
East Palestine Village 1 and 2 and Unity Township SE will move to the Church of Christ, 20 W. Martin St., East Palestine, from the East Palestine Fire Station and East Palestine First Presbyterian Church.
Lisbon Village North will move to the First United Methodist Church, 114 E. Washington St., Lisbon, from St. George Parish Hall, Lisbon.
Salem City 3-B and 3-C will move to the First Christian Church, 1151 E. Sixth St., Salem, from Salem Senior High School in Salem.
Some Salem voters already had the chance to try out the First Christian Church as a polling place during the May primary when a bomb threat forced poll workers to pick up everything from the high school and move across the street.
Board of Elections Deputy Director Bryce Miner said the board's preference was to move the polling location to the church. He said that he and Director Kim Fusco "found the church was a much more suitable location."
In East Palestine, he said the First Presbyterian Church became the site for the Way Station, which was growing rapidly since the train derailment, so they knew they needed to leave that location. As for the fire station, with everything that has happened, he wasn't sure if they would be able to host the election there.
Miner said he and Fusco visited the Church of Christ to assess the location and met with the pastor. There's a gym where voting can take place, with ample parking in the church parking lot, at the library next door or on the street.
In Lisbon, the move will create a multi-precinct location and was just a matter of consolidation of locations.
"We appreciate St. George for being a good host for many years," Miner said.
In other business, the board approve the precinct official reduction for multi-precinct locations, allowing the board to reduce from four poll workers to two poll workers per precinct. He said this was a procedural move, to give the board the flexibility to shift poll workers to higher volume precincts when necessary.
He said the board is still in need of poll workers, especially on the Democrat side and Independent side, but noted that Republicans are always welcome, too.
"We always want to have extra (poll workers) on hand, especially since it's a presidential year next year," Miner said.
The board also accepted the results of the voluntary internal audit for the May 2 special election, with the hand count matching the results 100 percent.
Some upcoming important dates for the Aug. 8 special election were announced. Special election programming for the system will take place June 20, with logic and accuracy testing of the equipment set for July 7.
The voter registration deadline for the special election is July 10. The board of elections office will be open that day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Absentee voting by mail and in office absentee voting will commence July 11. So far the office has received 17 absentee ballot requests. The schedule of dates for voting absentee is available on the board website at columbiana.boe.ohio.gov.
The only item on the special election ballot will be State Issue 1, Elevating the Standards to Qualify for and to Pass Any Constitutional Amendment, changing the percentage from a simple majority to 60 percent. All 73 precincts will be open for this election. Miner said the cost will be just under $100,000 and election officials are expecting the state to pay for the cost.