MAHONING COUNTY Elections board lists changes in precincts

The board will eliminate about 40 more precincts in the county, primarily in Austintown and Boardman.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Board of Elections is sending letters this week to about 80,000 residents eligible to vote in the May 8 primary about new voting precinct boundaries and locations.
Another notice will go out shortly before the primary.
Also, the board is launching a news media campaign to make voters in Youngstown, Struthers and Poland aware of the changes for next month's primary.
Even so, board Chairman Mark E. Munroe admits it will be a challenge to make every eligible voter aware that the place at which they voted all their adult lives may no longer be the place they need to go for future elections.
"There will still be some people who don't get the word," he said today.
There will be signs at former voting locations alerting people to new voting locations, said Michael V. Sciortino, board director.
"This is affecting a lot of voters," he said. "It could be every voter when it's done."
Reduction in precincts: In Youngstown, Struthers and Poland, board officials have reduced the number of voting precincts from 180 to 119.
The board will eliminate about 40 more precincts in the rest of the county -- probably 12 to 15 each in Boardman and Austintown -- in time for the Nov. 6 general election.
The move will save about $1,000 per precinct, Munroe said.
The county is required by the state to redraw boundaries to reduce the number of precincts.
With the reduction, the average number of voters in each precinct will increase from 417 to about 600, Thomas P. McCabe, deputy director, said. Mahoning had the smallest number of voters per precinct of any county in the state with a population of more than 100,000, Munroe said.
"Our concern is to get the word out so voters aren't surprised that their voting precinct has changed or has a new name," Munroe said.