Touch screen or paper? You pick

By Ed Runyan

Hours have been expanded at the elections board for absentee voters.

WARREN — Trumbull County voters will choose between one line for voting on a touch-screen computer and one line for voting with a pencil and paper if they go to the polls on Election Day this year.

What’s more, voters in the county’s 15 largest polling places will be met at the door by “greeters” who will help advise them on which line to get in and other matters.

Those and other new procedures are among the policies approved by the county elections board meeting Tuesday.

Most of the procedures were mandated by Jennifer Brunner, Ohio Secretary of State, who has ordered Trumbull and other counties to make big changes in the way they do business.

Kelly Pallante, elections board director, said voters have had the option of voting on paper ballots since the county went to its electronic voting machines several years ago.

But the secretary of state now wants counties using electronic and paper voting to separate each precinct into two voting areas.

Voters will still approach the four elections workers at a table in their precinct and provide identification.

But from there they will use the touch-screen machines lined up in one area or old-style voting booths set up in another area. The old-style booths, which were designed for punch-card voting, have been modified so voters can fill out a paper ballot on them, Pallante said.

The greeters, one Republican and one Democrat, will be available to assist voters where four or five precincts use the same location.

The board also approved an expansion in the hours of operation for the elections board, which is located at the corner of Youngstown Road and Eastland Avenue. The extra times are designed to help voters who want to vote absentee.

Absentee voting is now being called “early voting” because voters no longer need an excuse to vote early.

Pallante said the ballot this November will be especially long and possibly confusing.

For electronic, touch-screen voters, there will be 13 to 14 screens worth of candidates and issues to vote on the ballot. For paper voters, there will be two double-sided sheets’ worth of candidates and issues.

Though the number of absentee voters — which reduces the number of voters on Election Day — has steadily increased in recent years, this election will have high voter turnout, Pallante said.

The combination of high turnout and lengthy ballot issues could create traffic jams at the polls, she said.

runyan@vindy.com