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By Katie Byard
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 03:46 p.m. EST, Nov 03, 2009
Updated: 3 p.m.
Summit County election officials said this afternoon that voter turnout was higher than expected and they had to order additional ballots.
Officials had predicted an overall turnout of as low as 20 percent, including absentee ballots cast in the weeks before Election Day.
''It's heavier than we thought,'' said Marijean Donofrio, head of the Summit County Board of Elections. ''It'll be more than that.''
Workers were hurriedly trying to get ballots printed and get them out to several polling places that were running low, she said about 3 p.m.
''Issue 3 [the statewide issue on casinos] is bringing a lot of people out,'' she said. '''That's what the poll workers say.''
She theorized that pleasant weather also was playing a role. Also, she noted that several school districts were trying to pass school levies. The hotly contested Barberton Municipal Court race could be attracting a lot of voters in the court district — Barberton, Clinton, Green, New Franklin, Norton, and Copley and Coventry townships.
The higher-than-anticipated turnout began almost immediately this morning and prompted Donofrio to predict then that more than 20 percent of voters would show up.
In addition to Issue 3, the election features municipal and township trustee races, school board races and ballot issues.
Polls will be open until 7:30 p.m.
Elections officials in Summit and other area counties reported no significant problems.
Lois Enlow, deputy director of the Portage County Board of Elections, said workers scurried to get a Streetsboro polling place open on time after having to track down someone to unlock a door.
Fast-thinking poll workers ''even took their oaths outside in the cold,'' while waiting at the site at the Camelot Village mobile home park.
''We have resourceful people,'' Enlow said. ''They had their machines up by 6:30 a.m.,'' when voting begins, she said.
Heavily contested races were prompting Portage elections officials to predict an overall 40 percent turnout.
Nine candidates are vying to become Streetsboro mayor.
The Rootstown Township trustee race attracted 11 candidates for two seats.
Two municipal judicial races in Portage races also have been hotly contested.
Stark and Medina election officials were anticipating overall turnout of about 35 and 30 percent, respectively.
In Summit, Bryan Williams, the election board's deputy director, said board troubleshooters and booth workers were seeing typical problems, such as campaign workers handing out literature too close to polls.
''They're always doing that,'' Williams said. ''We haven't found any resistance once people are asked to move back.''
At one polling place — Quirk Cultural Center in Cuyahoga Falls — poll workers initially could not scan about 50 ballots because the ink from the printer was too light.
Workers remedied the problem by darkening boxes that are part of a code on the ballots.
Donofrio said a few scanners were not accepting ballots and were indicating that the paper was too thick. She said other scanners were being brought to the affected sites and ballots would be scanned at the board office if necessary.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.
Updated: 3 p.m.
Summit County election officials said this afternoon that voter turnout was higher than expected and they had to order additional ballots.
Officials had predicted an overall turnout of as low as 20 percent, including absentee ballots cast in the weeks before Election Day.
''It's heavier than we thought,'' said Marijean Donofrio, head of the Summit County Board of Elections. ''It'll be more than that.''
Workers were hurriedly trying to get ballots printed and get them out to several polling places that were running low, she said about 3 p.m.
''Issue 3 [the statewide issue on casinos] is bringing a lot of people out,'' she said. '''That's what the poll workers say.''
She theorized that pleasant weather also was playing a role. Also, she noted that several school districts were trying to pass school levies. The hotly contested Barberton Municipal Court race could be attracting a lot of voters in the court district — Barberton, Clinton, Green, New Franklin, Norton, and Copley and Coventry townships.
The higher-than-anticipated turnout began almost immediately this morning and prompted Donofrio to predict then that more than 20 percent of voters would show up.
In addition to Issue 3, the election features municipal and township trustee races, school board races and ballot issues.
Polls will be open until 7:30 p.m.
Elections officials in Summit and other area counties reported no significant problems.
Lois Enlow, deputy director of the Portage County Board of Elections, said workers scurried to get a Streetsboro polling place open on time after having to track down someone to unlock a door.
Fast-thinking poll workers ''even took their oaths outside in the cold,'' while waiting at the site at the Camelot Village mobile home park.
''We have resourceful people,'' Enlow said. ''They had their machines up by 6:30 a.m.,'' when voting begins, she said.
Heavily contested races were prompting Portage elections officials to predict an overall 40 percent turnout.
Nine candidates are vying to become Streetsboro mayor.
The Rootstown Township trustee race attracted 11 candidates for two seats.
Two municipal judicial races in Portage races also have been hotly contested.
Stark and Medina election officials were anticipating overall turnout of about 35 and 30 percent, respectively.
In Summit, Bryan Williams, the election board's deputy director, said board troubleshooters and booth workers were seeing typical problems, such as campaign workers handing out literature too close to polls.
''They're always doing that,'' Williams said. ''We haven't found any resistance once people are asked to move back.''
At one polling place — Quirk Cultural Center in Cuyahoga Falls — poll workers initially could not scan about 50 ballots because the ink from the printer was too light.
Workers remedied the problem by darkening boxes that are part of a code on the ballots.
Donofrio said a few scanners were not accepting ballots and were indicating that the paper was too thick. She said other scanners were being brought to the affected sites and ballots would be scanned at the board office if necessary.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Akron, Oh
Posted 04:16 PM, 11/03/2009
I hope people are smart enough to vote those levies down, I could use some of the money back that the schools p1$$ away.
Posted 05:10 PM, 11/03/2009
UseCommonSense change name to cheapskate,it's time to stop thinking everthing is free just pay some taxes, people did to put you so you could go to school
AKRON, OH
Posted 05:13 PM, 11/03/2009
Please please please let McNulty win Clerk of Barberton Courts. He has no hidden agenda and will serve our counties with integrity.
I also hope that City of Green voters do not re-elect Green School Board Members Bob Campbell and Jay Dettorre. Both of these incumbents have assisted the rest of the school board and past Supterintendent Wade Lucas in driving our schools finances into the ditch. I have 3 children in the Green School system and I hope for all of our children's sake, a new board and our new Superintendent Nutter will fix this mess. I live in a home that is valued at $250,000, according to the Summit County Fiscal Office, and pay over $4,000 each year just in property taxes. Green Local Schools get the majority of my taxes. This is a shame and I hope voters show the school board a clear message that we're not going to take their personal and private agenda's anymore. The current school board members care more about their social status in the community rather than their job responsibility allocating our tax dollars in the school system.
Akron, Ohio
Posted 05:57 PM, 11/03/2009
@Lisa
You don't raise taxes during a recession! We're taxed enough.
Norton, Oh
Posted 06:14 PM, 11/03/2009
Raise the taxes! Vote for the levies! Show you neighbor you dont care! Force them to decide between new shoes for their child or dinner! RAISE OUR TAXES!!
The preceeding message is purely satyrical and facetious in nature addressing thos with feelings like (probably non property owner) Lisa.
Canal Fulton, Oh
Posted 06:34 PM, 11/03/2009
lol
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Posted 06:53 PM, 11/03/2009
Why vote for the levies when the school systems are teaching our children lies as fact and allow an environment where decent kids are bullied and corrupted by the ones who are there only to create havoc and disruption. When the school systems start teaching our children the truth thus preparing them for life and when we get dedicated educators instead of politicians running these systems then I may vote for a levy but until then I would recommend that if any cuts are to be made that they start at the top where most of the waste is. I'm tired of being held hostage by the so called "officials" saying that if we don't pony up the cash then the teachers and needed programs will be cut. It's high time we take back not only our schools but our country too
akron, oh
Posted 07:02 PM, 11/03/2009
highest taxes per K of income in U.S. and some pretty bad returns on investment
Posted 07:30 PM, 11/03/2009
That's the ONLY thing that got a yes vote from me today - the school levy.
Akron, Oh
Posted 07:50 PM, 11/03/2009
@megamillions.
You are not very smart. Well, check that: you are lazy. Understanding local school budget projections and contributing factors is important to determining stewardship. While Campbell and Detorre may get a social rise out of their positions, they clearly have not driven the finances of GLS "into the ditch." Green's problem is that they were nearing the end of a levy cycle anyway. Levy cycles generally put a government agency heavy into the black for the first few years of the (5-year, usually)cycle, until expenses (salaries, other operations) rise and begin to exceed that flat revenue. Then, it is time to ask for additional funds (this usually rises at the rate of inflation, or near it 3-4%).
Green was at the end of a levy cycle, ready to ask for new funds, when real estate reappraisals and future tax projections (and actualilties) tanked, and caused a an earlier and larger revenue /expenditure gap.
GLS Board's primary mistake was not anticipating the gap soon enough, and failure to try to pass a levy earlier. Actually, the anti-tax people should be happy with this Board of Ed., because they effectively found a way to cut the GLS budget by 11% last year... a belt-tightening. The vote today was just a status quo vote.
so Megamillions... you are frustrated, but you were lazy... I hope you learned something today.
AKRON, OH
Posted 08:35 PM, 11/03/2009
@RH19,
Thank you for your words of wisdom. Only this kind of information you gave would be known by a board member or treasurer. Perhaps if the board had exercised fiscal discipline, they would not have spent all of their money at the beginning of the cycle and now find themselves in dire straits.
Akron, Oh
Posted 12:21 AM, 11/04/2009
mega
Not really.... budget projections are public record, and are located at the OECN website. Google "fyf" and "oecn" and go from there.
See, think of it like this. Expenditures rise more consistently... like a steady slope.... Revenues... about half from the state, but the other half local... rise in steps based upon additional levy requests. So lay those two graphs overtop of one another, and it's pretty typical. I have to laugh when I hear people criticize school fiscal responsibility, because this is how every district in the state works. Green got caught on timing, that's all. At lease you get to vote on it. Wouldn't you love to get your hands on a ballot to approve or reject the budgets of every state and federal agency?
