Trending
LISBON -- The Columbiana County Board of Elections accepted 244 provisional ballots Wednesday to include in the final tally for the Nov. 7 general election.
Those ballots will be added with the 4,763 valid absentee ballots when the official count is done next week, with the board set to certify those final general election results during a meeting at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 28.
During the meeting Wednesday to review provisional ballots and absentee ballots, the board agreed to accept five provisional ballots that were part of the 244 after Director Kim Fusco explained they were a case of "right church, wrong pew." The voters were in the right polling location, but cast a ballot in the wrong precinct. Some polling locations included more than one precinct.
When asked why a precinct poll worker wouldn't have pointed the voters to the right precinct, Fusco blamed it on poll worker error.
Deputy Director Bryce Miner added that for those five provisional ballots, only the votes for races or issues in the correct precinct will count.
Provisional ballots are ballots cast at the polls by people who may have moved and their registration must be checked. The board rejected 98 ineligible provisional ballots, with more than half, 53, because the voter was not registered. For the rest, three had no signature on the ballot envelope, 12 didn't have a valid ID, 27 voted in the wrong precinct and wrong polling location and three had no ballot in the envelope.
Board member David Johnson asked if 98 was a high number to be rejected.
"That's relatively high from what we've had in the past," Fusco said.
Again, there could have been poll worker error or registrations could have been dropped from the records if the voter had not voted in the past four election cycles. In the case of the IDs, voters had a cure period when they could have gone to the election board office after the election to bring their valid ID, which could include a driver's license, state ID, military ID or passport.
For Fusco, a good perspective to consider is the fact that those 53 not registered will now be registered to vote in the next election.
The board also rejected 14 absentee ballots as uncountable due to arriving too late or with a late postmark or no postmark, one was refused, two were undeliverable and two had no ID envelope completed.
In other business, the board members weighed the options between two estimates for new electronic pollbooks, agreeing to go with current supplier KNOWINK, LLC at a cost of $78,000 for 80 iPads with software. The other estimate came from ES&S for $109,760 or $134,160 for the high-end pollbook with a stand.
Board members questioned why there was such a big difference in costs for the two companies, but Fusco and Miner couldn't explain it. Fusco pointed out the KNOWINK estimate was lower and there would be no learning curve for poll workers or election board staffers since they're comfortable using the iPads since they use them now.
Fusco added another reason to choose KNOWINK, a lower yearly maintenance cost. The iPADS used as pollbooks aren't connected to the Internet and are strictly used for checking voters in.
The current iPads being used only date back to 2017, but the state is offering the county a $61,481 reimbursement for the purchase of new pollbooks.
Since the election board office had to stay open when Veterans Day was observed as a holiday, due to the cure period, the board agree to close the office on Nov. 24, the day after Thanksgiving.