Ballot shortages in some Ohio Counties…
This in via e-mail from the office of Jennifer Brunner, Secretary of State, it gives you an idea of the possible voting numbers in other parts of Ohio:
Columbus, OH – Beginning at approximately 5:00 p.m., a request came from the Summit County Board of Elections to photocopy dwindling ballot supplies, because ballots in several locations in the county were running low. At approximately 5:04 p.m., the Secretary of State’s office gave permission to the Summit Count Board of Elections main office to photocopy and document the production of additional ballot by this means, with the proviso that such ballots would need to be remade upon their being voted and delivered to the board offices.
All ballot supplies in the 475 precincts located in the county’s 198 polling locations were marked with a divider sheet at the 25% point to alert poll workers that ballot supplies had reached 25% of available ballots for the precinct. Poll workers, supplied with cell phones by the board of elections, had been instructed to call the board at the point that ballot supplies reached 25% so that more ballots if needed could be supplied. Areas of critical need have been Twinsburg, where there is a .25% tax increase on the ballot; Green, where there is a school issue; and Tallmadge. At least 19,000 additional ballots have been printed with the board’s four ballot-on-demand printers, with areas of greatest depletion and those furthest from the board offices being served first.
The board requests that the media serving Summit County voters disseminate the following message:
Voters in Summit County are eligible to vote until 7:30 p.m. The polls in Summit County will close at 7:30 p.m. Anyone appearing at their polling location to vote by 7:30 p.m. will be permitted to vote, even if there is a line. A poll worker will mark the point in any line where the last voter has appeared at 7:30 p.m. to vote. Unanticipated ballot shortages have occurred, and more ballots are being supplied to those polling places in need. Voters wishing to vote should remain at their polling places until ballots have been supplied. They may vote at that time.
Voters who may have left a polling place because they could not wait should return to the polling place no later than 7:30 p.m. so that they may vote their ballots. If you have any questions, you may call the board of elections at 1-330-643-5200 or the Secretary of State’s voter hotline at 1-877-868-3874.
