Board of Elections preparing for primary
The board of elections met for their regular monthly meeting to discuss the upcoming March primary as well as regular business. Bills were high this month as they included the Dominion yearly contract fee of $75,000 as well as a new technology contract for $12,500. The new tech company has been working out well already, according to Board Director Dion Troiano, “We had a couple hiccups with printer drivers and stuff like that but it’s all sorted out.”
Special attention was given to the fact that within the March Primary Ballot there will be a somewhat strange part of the election. Voters will see five names of candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives to Congress, District 6, which should be a fairly familiar sight. However, voters will see what appears to be a repeat right after that list. The doubling is not a vision problem but a necessity.
As outlined in a directive received from the Ohio Secretary of State, “On January 2, 2024, U.S. Representative Johnson announced that he plans to resign his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 21, 2024, leaving a vacancy in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District. Pursuant to Ohio law, the vacancy must be filled by a special congressional election, and partisan candidates for that election must be nominated in a special congressional primary. Governor DeWine issued a writ of election on January 4, 2024, to establish the dates of the special congressional primary and special general elections. The special congressional primary election for Ohio’s 6th Congressional District will be conducted on March 19, 2024.
The special congressional general election for the remainder of the unexpired term will be held on June 11, 2024. The general election for the subsequent full term beginning January 3, 2025, will be held on November 5, 2024.”
In plain terms, voters will be deciding who will fill Johnson’s unexpired term, which ends in January, and also deciding who will fill the full four-year term beginning January 2025.
A couple board members shared that they had hoped they could have only a single polling location in the county for the June 11 special election as it’s expected voter turnout to be extremely low. However, they were advised against this and will likely choose at least two polling locations. Those locations will be decided by the board following the March primary.
