CLEVELAND — In the four-year election cycle, the year before a presidential election is usually the quietest but not this year. Last week's decision by the legislature to add an August election has county boards of elections hurrying to catch up.
"They're scrambling right now, there's no doubt about that," said Aaron Ockerman. "I think the two big things you'll hear them talk about at the local level are probably trying to make sure we have enough polling locations available for voters and that we have enough poll workers."
And when securing both of those, Anthony Perlatti, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said, "We're about a month behind where we would want to be in election preparation."
Additionally, Cuyahoga County is in the process of switching to new voting equipment that workers still need to be trained on, which was going to be rolled out in a limited September election.
"We will now have to use that equipment in the August election, which means our timelines have been cut. Even though it's a one-month difference between August and September, in the world of elections administration, that's a lifetime," Perlatti said. "That compounds the issue quite a bit for us."
Ockerman said Hamilton County is in a similar boat in looking to take advantage of the quiet election cycle to change its voter registration system. "That's a very big piece of technology that we use; I think they're probably going to have to delay that a little while," he said.
Election officials got a taste of this last August when they had to stage an unplanned General Assembly primary on Aug. 2. They learned to adapt, so when in Cuyahoga County, for example, the more than a hundred college kids typically hired to work the warehouse on election night were not available because they weren't back in school. Instead, the BOE hired the Garfield Heights Football team, who used it as a fundraiser.
In Summit County, Bryan Williams, director of the board of elections, told News 5 he is confident they'll have the time to do what they need to do over the next 12 weeks.
"It'll be probably a moderately low turnout election, and we'll do it; we'll be ready," he said.
And keep in mind beyond November, the March presidential and U.S. primary election is only ten months away.
