Elections board approves shelves for voting devices

The response from 17-year-olds has not been what officials had hoped.
WARREN -- Trumbull County commissioners are expected to consider a request from the board of elections for $20,113 worth of shelving units to store the county's new touch-screen voting equipment.
At a special meeting Friday, the elections board recommended awarding the bid to Record Systems of Youngstown for installation of metal, fixed shelving units in the board's storage area to hold the nearly $3 million in electronic equipment.
Officials said the shelving, made by Kardex, will hold the 841 voting machines upright and get them off the concrete floor, where they have sat since their purchase about a year ago.
Officials say storing the machines on the floor allows them to get dusty and makes them difficult to access.
In other business, the board said it is in need of additional poll workers for the May 2 primary election. Sickness and retirements of many of the older poll workers have left the elections board with a shortage, board Director Kelly S. Pallante said. Attempts to recruit 17-year-olds for the jobs have produced some response but not as much as the elections board had hoped, Pallante said.
Late filings
Deputy Director Rokey Suleman said one Republican candidate who filed her campaign finance report a day late on Friday morning will be referred to the Ohio Elections Commission. He doesn't expect any action to be taken against the candidate, though.
The candidate, Elizabeth McPherson of Warren, who's running for county auditor, filed the report after the 4 p.m. Thursday deadline. She has no opponent in the primary and will face incumbent Adrian Biviano in November.
Her report showed contributions of $240, expenditures of $3,591, a balance of $3,351 and outstanding debts of $5,100, including a $5,000 loan she took out at 1st Place Bank of Warren.
Republican candidate for county commissioner Niki Frenchko filed a report Friday, though she was not required to do so because she had less than $1,000. She is unopposed.
Her report showed contributions of $25, a balance on hand of $271, in-kind contributions of $120 and a self-loan of $1,088.