CLEVELAND — The lines were long at the Board of Elections Sunday as early voting comes to an end Monday, Nov. 7.
If early voting is not your plan, you will want to check your polling location if you are voting in Cuyahoga County.
Find your polling location here.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (CCBOE) made changes in September to polling locations ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections to 29 precincts in seven different municipalities.
Over 24,000 voters are affected by the changes to precincts in Berea, Cleveland, North Olmsted, Solon, South Euclid, University Heights and Warrensville Heights that were announced by the board of elections Friday afternoon.
Below are complete details on which voting locations have changed from a CCBOE news release:
Berea: Voters in two precincts have been moved out of Berea Branch Library at 7 Berea Commons.
- Voters who live in Ward 1, Precinct B and Ward 4, Precinct A will now vote at the Berea Recreation Center at 451 Front Street.
Voters in two precincts have been moved out of the Berea Recreation Center at 451 Front Street.
- Voters who live in Ward 5, precincts A and C will now vote at the Berea Branch Library at 7 Berea Commons.
Cleveland: Voters in two precincts have been moved out of the Jane Addams Business Careers Center at 2373 East 30th Street.
- Voters who live in Ward 5, Precinct G and Precinct R will now vote at the Sankofa Village Apartments at 2390 East 30th Street.
Voters in one precinct have been moved out of the Joseph Gallagher Middle School at 6601 Franklin Blvd.
- Voters who live in Ward 15, Precinct K will now vote at the Michael Zone Recreation Center at 6301 Lorain Avenue.
Voters in one precinct have been moved out of the Joseph Gallagher Middle School at 6601 Franklin Blvd.
- Voters who live in Ward 15, Precinct M will now vote at Sagrada Familia at 7719 Detroit Avenue.
North Olmsted: Voters in three precincts have been moved out of the John Knox Presbyterian Church at 25200 Lorain Road.
- Voters who live in Ward 2, precincts C and D and Ward 4, Precinct A will now vote at the Maple Elementary School at 24101 Maple Ridge Road.
Solon: Voters in three precincts have been moved out of the Church of the Resurrection at 32001 Cannon Road.
- Voters who live in: Ward 4, precincts A, B, and C will now vote at the Solon Community Center at 35000 Portz Parkway.
South Euclid: Voters in one precinct have been moved out of the University Heights Library at 13866 Cedar Road.
- Voters who live in Ward 4, Precinct A will now vote at the Frank L. Wiley Middle School at 2181 Miramar Blvd. in University Heights.
University Heights: Voters in two precincts have been moved out of the University Heights Library at 13866 Cedar Road.
- Voters who live in precincts A and B will now vote at the Frank L. Wiley Middle School at 2181 Miramar Blvd. in University Heights.
Warrensville Heights: Voters in twelve precincts have been moved out of the Warrensville Heights Recreation Center at 4270 Northfield Road.
- Voters who live in Ward 1, precincts A and B, Ward 2, precincts A and B, Ward 3, precinct A, Ward 4, precincts A and B, Ward 5, precincts A and B, Ward 6 precinct A and Ward 7, precincts A and B, will now vote at the Warrensville Heights Early Childhood Center at 4265 Northfield Road.
The board of elections stated in a tweet over the weekend that the polling location changes were confirmed two months ago. Affected voters received a notice in the mail and all voters received the Voter Information Guide in September with correct information about their assigned polling location, the board said. It appears the first public announcement of all the changes to the polling places was in a news release from the board of elections on Friday afternoon.
"On Friday, we put out a news release, and we're very happy that the media shared this with their audiences," said Mike West, Manager of the Outreach Department for the CCBOE. "That said that there are some polling location changes for November. This is happening in seven cities. We also went over this in an election update that the director did on Friday. But what people need to know is, these are not last-minute changes."
West said that in addition to notifying affected voters with an individual notice and in the Voter Information Guide, the Board of Elections creates flyers that are put in libraries for distribution in the areas that are affected by voting changes. They also inform their municipal partners about voting changes within their cities, so that the mayors of the affected cities can include that information in their newsletters.
West said that the media wasn't notified about the changes earlier because it was too long before the election to be top-of-mind for voters.
"If we sent a news release out two months ahead of time, people aren't generally thinking about voting or where they're going to go and vote," West said. "But if we wait until closer to the election, people are actually starting to go through the thought process of, 'Well, Tuesday's coming up next week. I better make sure I know where I'm going to vote.'"
West said the idea behind the news release on Friday was that it was "just one extra last step that we take to try to bring attention to changes that have been made. And as for human nature, we think it's best to do this when it's several days out from the election."
While the announcement to the media was only made Friday, West said that they alerted affected voters previously, with an emphasis on knowing where to vote and having a voting plan ready.
"So we do all we can to let people know well in advance of the election that there have been changes," West said. "And what we do, generally, is we try to remind people whether they think there's a change or not, when they make their voting plan to either go online and confirm their voting location or they can call us on the telephone and they can follow the prompts and they can confirm their voting location on the telephone if they're not comfortable or if they don't have access to a computer."
Voters can confirm their voting location on the Board of Elections website here, or by calling 216-443-VOTE (8683).
Election Day is Tuesday. Nov. 8.
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