COLUMBIANA COUNTY ELECTIONS Board dismisses voter challenge

Election officials said theydidn't want to prohibit a person's right to vote.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- The Columbiana County Board of Elections voted 2-1 Friday in a bipartisan vote to dismiss a challenge to 49 Democrat voters.
Dennis Johnson, the Democratic party chairman, and Al Fricano, a Republican, voted to dismiss the challenge.
Jerry Ward, the chairman of the county elections board and Republican Party chairman, voted to hear more comments. Democratic elections board member Anthony Rich was absent.
Atty. Robert Guehl, a Republican, had filed the challenge based on returned cards to the elections board that he said raised questions over whether they were properly registered.
A handful of people among those who were challenged told the elections board their addresses were somehow altered when they registered to vote at Ohio driver's license bureaus. Guehl dismissed his challenges against those voters.
Atty. Joseph King, representing the Kerry-Edwards campaign in the county, argued that state law provides for a four-year period during which the elections board can take steps to verify a voters correct registration. That protects a person's right to vote, King said. King asked the elections board to dismiss the challenge on that basis.
Johnson said, "We're simple, hardworking people ... who want to vote."
He and Fricano said they did not want to interfere with a person's right to vote.
Challenges
One of those listed in the challenge, Jason D. Woodburn, said he had lived at his Columbiana address for a year. He asked why only Democrats were targeted.
Guehl said he was not motivated by politics but by returned voter registration cards.
But some cards are returned by postal workers simply if the person uses a post office box, according to John Payne, the elections director. Elections officials send a card confirming voter registration to the voter at his correct address. But postal workers may return it because their records don't reflect a person at that address.
King pointed out that many of the registration cards had telephone numbers that could have been called to clarify residency issues. Still other addresses belong to newly constructed homes listed in county records.
That accounted for Mary Ellen Arabe and her two children, Justin and Heather. They were all challenged.
Arabe said she went through all the steps to have her new home given an address since it was built on land split from another parcel. She also formally asked the postal service to make it a Negley address.
Arabe said she registered at a license bureau, which she said put on the correct address of Negley. But elections officials changed it from Negley to Rogers.
The problem was resolved late Friday. Payne said the elections board wasn't aware that she had formally petitioned for the address change.
The elections computer contains information that designates voting districts. If the boundaries change, such as through annexation, that also can create questions about an address, Payne said.
wilkinson@vindy.com