VOLUME 1 ISSUE 13 The POLL WATCHER FEBRUARY 2015 Inside This Issue 1 Message from the Directors 2 Staff News 3 Poll Worker Classes 4 May Ballot 5 Election Calendar 5 Contact Info Not all Precincts will be open for voting at the May 5 th, 2015 Election Message from the Directors Hopefully you all survived the Holidays and our lovely Ohio weather these past couple of months! Our office has been busy doing the in-between Elections work, including issuing & verifying petitions, accepting Questions & Issues to be placed on the May ballot, and preparing some of our training materials. The Poll Worker training schedule is listed on page 3 of this newsletter. While this training is not mandatory for the May 5 th, 2015 Primary/Special Election, we encourage you to attend to refresh your memory on the procedures and laws. We especially would recommend that the new poll workers who worked for the first time in November of 2014 to attend to learn the procedures for processing party voters and issuing the correct ballot. We will not be having a full Primary Election in May. We ve explained the ballot content on page 4 of this newsletter. Some precincts will not be open, and some precincts with only an Issue on the ballot will only require 2 poll workers. Assignment letters will be going out around the latter part of March. Please understand that since not all polling places will be open for this Election, many of you will not be assigned to work. Bill is going to take advantage of this smaller Election to do some on-the-job training of Presiding Judges since he will need quite a few more with the dominant party changing due to the Gubernatorial Election results. As a reminder, please be aware that we get the poll worker checks generated as soon as possible after each Election. The County Finance and IT Department have been great to process your payroll very quickly. Please don t call us two days after the Election asking where your check is (yes we did have some calls like that after November.) Also, most of you don t need reminded of this but please cash your checks in a timely manner. We had a few poll workers who did not cash their November checks until it was past the 60 day limit. These had to be re-issued in 2015, and came out of our budget for this year, instead of the 2014 budget. One last reminder don t forget your pay has increased for 2015! The compensation is now $130 for regular election officials, $140 for Presiding Assistants (who must ride back to the board office with the PJ), and $165 for Presiding Judges. Our board felt the extra increase in the PJ s pay was necessary to cover the extra trips/mileage to cover picking up the supplies on Monday and then returning everything to the office on Election night.
PAGE 2 Staff News & Miscellaneous Introducing Miss Zayla Ann Obenour Our Staff has been taking some time off over these winter months. We have to squeeze in our vacation days during our slower periods. Elections Assistant Diana Naumoff went back to Florida to spend about 10 days at their condo in January. She will be returning to work on February 18 th. Our IT Election Specialist Debbie Obenour welcomed a new granddaughter into the world on January 22 nd named Zayla Ann Obenour. She s a real cutie! (See pictures to left.) Jim Blank, our TSX and L & A (Logic and Accuracy) Supervisor, has had a break since the middle of December. He will be starting back around the first or second week in March to prepare for our L & A and to begin his election prep work. L & A is scheduled to commence on March 18 th and should last about a week or 10 days. We will have our 8-10 extra workers coming in daily to assist with this until it s completed. UOCAVA voting (Uniformed and Overseas Civilian Absentee Voting Act) starts on Saturday March 21 st. The deadline to register or change your name or address is Monday April 6 th and our office will be open until 9:00 P.M. that evening. Regular absentee voting starts on Tuesday April 7 th. Paulette, Carrie and Andrew have been taking some days off to tend to Personal matters really exciting things such as Doctor Appointments, etc.! Our office will be closed on Monday February 16 th for Presidents Day.. We would like to extend our sympathy to the family and friends of one of our former extra office workers. Kay Groves Bixler worked in our office for many years helping with absentee voting and printing ballots. Sadly, she passed away on Tuesday February 3 rd in Gahanna, Ohio where she had moved to be nearer her family. She will be missed by many. Bill Freytag went to Myrtle Beach to stay at his new condo there over the long Martin Luther King Holiday weekend, and liked it so well he extended his stay to most of that week! He came back to several inches of snow, still wearing his beach sandals. (See picture to left.)
PAGE 3 POLL WORKER TRAINING SCHEDULE FOR MAY 5 TH, 2015 ELECTION MAY 5, 2015 POLL WORKER TRAINING SCHEDULE Training is NOT mandatory for the May Primary Election. We strongly suggest that poll workers who have not worked in a Primary to attend a session to learn the party affiliation process and issuing the correct ballot type. Any poll worker may attend to review the procedures. FOR ALL POLL WORKERS HANDS-ON STATION TRAINING ALL Poll Workers may attend a training session for this Election but it s not mandatory All stations are in Lower Level Classroom and 2 nd Lower Level Classroom Compensation is $20.00 which will be included on your check issued after the Election You must stay for a minimum of 1 ½ hours to receive the compensation Please arrive at least 1 ½ hour before the close of training for the day so that you have time to complete your session before our Staff leaves Please visit each station you may spend as much time or as little time as needed for you individually at each station Stations 1. TSX Review (1 st Lower Classroom) 2. Provisional Review & Paper Ballots/Splits/Parties (1 st Lower Classroom) 3. Encoder Use & Miscellaneous (1 st Lower Classroom) 4. EP Review/Practice & Re-Packing (2 nd Lower Classroom) 5. EP Stats/Accountability Chart (2 nd Lower Classroom) 6. Party Affiliations/Party Ballots/Issues Only Ballots (1 st Lower) Training is not mandatory for this Election. Poll Workers who have never worked a Primary Election are especially urged to attend. CLASSES DATES/TIMES Wednesday April 15 th 9:00 A.M. through 7:00 P.M. Saturday April 18th 9:00 A.M. through 2:00 P.M. Monday April 20 th 9:00 A.M. through 7:00 P.M. Thursday April 23 rd 9:00 A.M. 7:00 P.M. OPEN PRACTICE NO COMPENSATION Techs will be available to assist you You may come with your co-workers, or individually All Open Practice is in 1 st Lower Classroom You do not get paid for this practice it s only to give you more confidence immediately prior to the actual Election Tuesday April 28 th 9:00 A.M. through 3:00 P.M.
MAY 5 TH, 2015 BALLOT PAGE 4 Since there are no county-wide candidates or issues on the ballot, and no state issues or candidates, not all precincts will be open for voting on May 5 th. 46 Precincts out of our 85 total will be open for voting. The City of Mansfield precincts will all be open. A city-wide continuation of the ½% Income Tax Levy for Police and Fire Services will be on every ballot in the City of Mansfield. On the Democratic ballot, all candidates will appear on the ballot, since the Council At Large race is contested. On the Republican side, there are no contested races, so the Republican candidates were nominated through to the General without appearing on the ballot as required by the Ohio Revised Code. Therefore, voters in the City of Mansfield may request a Democratic ballot, or an Issues Only ballot. No Republican ballots will be available. In the City of Ontario, there are no contested races on the Democratic side. On the Republican side, there is a contested race for the Ward 3 Council seat. There is also a Local Option Question for this ward. Voters in Ontario 3-A (Ontario City Hall polling location) may request a Republican or Issues only ballot. No Democratic ballots will be available. Only the Third Ward Precinct will be open in Ontario on May 5 th. Ontario Precincts 1, 2 and 4 will not be open since there are no contested races or issues in those precincts. The City of Shelby has a different filing deadline date of February 19th, according to their Charter plus their candidates run non-partisan. There is a Shelby School District Marvin Memorial Library issue on the ballot which will force the Bloominggrove, Cass, Franklin, Jackson, Plymouth and Sharon townships to have voting, along with all of the Shelby precincts. In all these township precincts, the Library issue will be the only thing on the ballot. In Shelby, as well as the school district precincts, you do not need to ask party affiliation as all the ballots will be the same. Since the Cass township portion in the Shelby School District has zero voters in it, we will not be opening the Cass precinct. If any voters would register in this district by the registration deadline, we will notify them to go to Jackson Township to vote. The Bloominggrove split for Shelby School District only has 74 voters. We will notify the voters in this district to go to Jackson Township Hall for this election only. The Franklin Township portion with Shelby School District split only has 13 voters but they also have an operating levy on the ballot. Therefore, Franklin Township polling location will be open on May 5 th. We will send TSX s to Jackson programmed specifically for the Cass and Bloominggrove Township voters, plus a separate EP. In summary, all City of Shelby precincts will be open, as will Franklin, Jackson A & B, Ply A, and Sharon. Sandusky Township will be open because the Crestline Exempted Village School District, with 295 voters, has placed an issue on the ballot. An Electric Aggregate Question was submitted for the Village of Lexington, and the Village of Bellville submitted an Electric Aggregate Question and a Gas Aggregate Question. However, this issue can only be on the ballot when there are candidates also on the ballot. There are no candidates on the ballot for either of these villages. Therefore, these Questions will be reserved to go on the November ballot, and the Lexington and Bellville precincts will not be open in May. Monroe Township filed a 0.15M Lucas-Monroe Park Levy Renewal issue. Therefore, all the Monroe Township precincts will be open on May 5 th, and voters may only request an Issues Only ballot no party ballots will be available. Any precinct not included in this summary will not be open for the May Election. A precinct that is open, but has no Candidates on the ballot will only have 2 poll workers. (A new law was recently passed allowing us to only use 2 poll workers in a Special Election which is an Election without candidates). A complete listing of which precincts will be open and which will not be open will be included in your next newsletter.
PAGE 5 Election Calendar February 19 Filing Deadline for Shelby Candidates only for May Primary (Shelby Issues Filing deadline was February 4 th ) March 21 UOCAVA (Military and Overseas Civilian Absentee Voting Starts April 6 Voter Registration Deadline for May Primary April 7 Regular Absentee Voting Commences May 4 PJ Pick Up/ Set Up Day May 5 Primary/Special Election Day Board Members and Staff RICHLAND COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS BOARD MEMBERS MICHAEL A. CASTO, CHAIR JOSEPH H. MUDRA, MEMBER LYDIA J. REID, MEMBER JEFF WILKINSON, MEMBER ADMINISTRATION PAULETTE HANKINS, DIRECTOR, phankins@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5533 BILL FREYTAG, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, bfreytag@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5532 STAFF DEBBIE OBENOUR, IT TECHNICAL SUPPORT SPECIALIST V dobenour@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5537 ANDREW BRINLEY, ELECTION SPECIALIST II, abrinley@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5236 CARRIE HILL, ELECTION SPECIALIST II, chill@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5235 DIANA NAUMOFF, ELECTION SPECIALIST 1, dnaumoff@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.7878