Polling places overcome variety of complications

A leaky roof forced some Lowellville voters to cast ballots elsewhere.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- There were a few problems with Mahoning County's electronic voting system but nothing serious, the elections board director said.
Poll workers at about five precincts forgot to plug in voting machines and didn't realize it until the machines' batteries stopped working, said Director Thomas McCabe.
Poll workers who called with the problem were instructed to plug in the machines, but some couldn't do it, McCabe said. In those cases, election board employees went to polling sites to plug in the machines, he said.
Also, the roof at the Lowellville High Rise on West Wood Street, where voters in the village's 2nd Precinct cast ballots, leaked, and about 3 inches of water got into the building, said Joyce Kale Pesta, the election board's deputy director.
The voting machines were moved to the high school, a short distance from the high-rise, she said. The equipment wasn't damaged, she said.
Disgusted voter
An Austintown woman who voted at the Saxon Club on Meridian Road said she was disgusted by the experience.
Ethel Sheridan of Yolanda Place said she had trouble with the screens when she tried to pick trustee candidates. She said the blue highlighter across the name went to the wrong candidate when she pushed the button. She said she managed to correct that problem.
On the second screen, she voted on issues. But when she pressed the button to access a review of her votes, she found that the screen showed she didn't vote for two issues, and one for which she'd voted "yes" listed her vote as "no."
Sheridan said she was able to cast her votes again, and they were correct the second time.
Effort to improve
McCabe said he didn't hear any complaints about such problems with the machines.
That was a problem with the county's voting machines last year, and election officials and employees made a concerted effort to improve the system this year, he said.
Trumbull County used an electronic voting system for the first time Tuesday. Mahoning has used one since 2002. McCabe noted that Mahoning County's totals were finalized at least an hour before Trumbull County.
Mahoning received criticism in 2002 because Trumbull's paper ballot results were finalized hours before Mahoning when it first used its new machines.
Voter turnout
Turnout in Mahoning County was higher than McCabe's prediction. McCabe had predicted turnout at 38 percent. Turnout in the county was 45.1 percent.
Turnout in Trumbull County was 49.3 percent. Election officials there predicted turnout at 45 percent to 50 percent.
Turnout in Columbiana County wasn't available late Tuesday, but John Payne, its election board director, said it was light.
Some voters didn't understand where to write the name of Larry Long, an East Liverpool school board candidate, running as a write-in for the seat, Payne said. "Quite a few" voters wrote Long's name on the ballot guides given to people to cast ballots instead of the punch card ballots, he said.
Poll workers erased the names or covered them with tape as they were discovered, Payne said, adding that the elections board would look further into the matter today.
skolnick@vindy.com
XContributing to this report were D.A. Wilkinson and Jeanne Starmack, staff writers.