Elections board updates Web site

The board is working to improve handicapped accessibility to polling sites.

STAFF REPORT

LISBON — Politicians and the public will soon be able to get more information about the Columbiana Board of Elections through the board’s improved Web site.

The site, www.columbianacounty.org, now provides a mission statement, information about its location, printable forms, such as for an absentee ballot, the calender of election activities and results going back to the fall election in 2007.

Shean Martin, a representative of Triad GSI of Xenia, Ohio, said the new programs will greatly increase usage.

They will include:

UA link to a list where people can determine if they are registered and their subdivision. People will be able to print information on the location of their poll.

UA poll locator that will allow people to type in their address and determine their poll, and also get directions to the site.

UPeople will be able to print a list of eligible voters within a precinct. The list of names can be sorted alphabetically by voter name or by streets.

UPeople will be able to get names of absentee applicants for a given election. The user can sort the absentee voters by their applications for absentee ballots, their precinct and party.

The package will cost the elections board $700 a year. No date was set for the activation.

The elections board also is working to improve handicapped accessibility at the county’s polls. The county has 103 precincts combined in 88 voting places.

Kim Meek, board director, said it will survey the sites, determine what, if anything, is needed and then apply for money from the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.

Lois Gall, deputy director, said the board’s headquarters in Lisbon has compliance problems. Many people vote at the board offices before the election.

People entering the main door have to step up to enter the building.

Board Member Larry Bowersock said the county has tried to deal with the accessibility issues several times since 1979.