LISBON — The Columbiana County Board of Elections is looking for more poll workers to help on Election Day this fall, with Thursday’s meeting spent discussing preparations for the Nov. 5 general election.

“If you’re interested, we’ll have a place for you,” county Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco said.

There’s a lot of openings and they need to have at least 330 poll workers in place for the presidential election. Poll workers are paid $120 for the day which roughly begins at 5:45 a.m. and ends at 8 p.m.

If interested, call the office at 330-424-1448. Each precinct requires two Republicans and two Democrats, but she said people who are unaffiliated can work at any precinct and fill in.

“It’s really public service that we’re looking for — patriotism,” board Chairman David Johnson said.

Fusco said both parties are supposed to be helping to recruit poll workers and county workers are needed, too. County workers are permitted to work as poll workers and it won’t cost them a vacation day.

Fusco also talked to the board about the need to hire possibly six to eight temporary shift workers for the office who will help out staff members during early voting, which starts Oct. 8 at the location on Dickey Drive, Lisbon. The previous rate was $12 per hour, but board members briefly discussed a need to increase that rate, asking her to check with other counties on what they’re doing.

Fusco notified the board that the Ohio Secretary of State awarded a grant to the county totaling $17,606, with $9,525 to be used for November election readiness and $8,081 for poll worker training. Fusco and Administrative Assistant Niki Wilkinson advised board members about an idea to get phones for all of the precinct judges for Election Day so they can all be texted at once in case of an issue or emergency. Also discussed was finding room for more voting stations in the lobby of the board office to cut down wait times when early voting starts.

“I look for at least 12,000 to come here to vote,” Fusco said.

The last presidential election was during COVID-19 in 2020 and 9,198 voters came to the office to cast their ballots during early voting. She’s expecting a lot more this time around.

Johnson said he’s received a lot of questions from people about election integrity, mostly concerning immigrants who have temporary citizenship and driver’s licenses.

“Just because you have a driver’s license doesn’t mean you get to vote,” he said, adding a person has to be registered to vote.

Wilkinson noted that on the voter registration form, there’s a box that has to be checked that the person registering is a U.S. citizen. If someone lies, they could put themselves at risk for deportation, Johnson said.

In other business, the board approved two local liquor options for the Nov. 5 ballot, one for the Wellsville V.F.W. Post 5647 Pvt. Tommy Mackall for D6 Sunday sales and for March TWO, LTD for D6 Sunday sales in Salem 2A. Both were required to have at least 50 valid signatures and both did.

A local liquor option, however, for Walmart Supercenter in Calcutta for Monday through Saturday liquor sales and Sunday sales was invalidated and won’t be on the ballot due to failing to secure enough valid signatures. The option needed 258 valid signatures of voters. Out of 534 signatures gathered, 319 signatures were invalid for a number of reasons, falling 43 valid signatures short of the required amount. Some of the signatures came from people out of the jurisdiction and some were not registered to vote.

The board also approved the use of Graphic Village as the vendor for the absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 election. Fusco said they’ve built a good relationship with the company and never had any problems. A secure data transfer is used and they have tracking to track all inbound and outbound absentee ballots.

Wilkinson and Fusco also talked about meeting with authorities from the United States Postal Service to discuss and troubleshoot for absentee ballots going through the mail, putting a face to the voice they’ve dealt with previously.

The next meeting of the board is set for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 4.

mgreier@mojonews.com