MAHONING COUNTY Displaced voters' option is absentee

The board will have the voting location redistricting plan finished by June 1.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Board of Elections encourages residents to vote by absentee ballot in the May 8 primary if they're upset because their voting location has changed.
"We've received about 30 phone calls from people concerned about the board's changing their polling places after 50 years, but we explain to them that it had to be done," said Thomas P. McCabe, the board's deputy director. "If they are too concerned about it, they can vote absentee instead of going to their new polling place."
Already arriving: To date, 719 people have voted by absentee, including 172 absentee ballots that arrived Thursday at the board.
The board sent letters last week to about 80,000 residents eligible to vote in the May 8 primary about the new voting precinct boundaries and locations. The letters also included an absentee ballot application.
Only voters in Youngstown, Struthers and Poland have issues and/or candidates for the primary. The board reduced the number of voting precincts in those areas from 180 to 119.
The county is required by the state to redraw boundaries to reduce the number of precincts.
Signs will be placed at the former voting sites telling people where their new polling place is, said board director Michael V. Sciortino. Another letter will be mailed to eligible voters about the polling place changes during the last week of this month, he said.
Before the elimination of 61 polling places in Youngstown, Struthers and Poland, there were 417 voting locations in the county.
Also reduced: The board also reduced the number of polling places in New Middletown, Coitsville and Lowellville today from three to two each for the Nov. 6 general election.
The realignment for the rest of the county should be finished no later than June 1, McCabe said. The county wants to eliminate about 40 more precincts, mostly in Boardman and Austintown.